In Support of Marad

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, it has been only 7 months since billionaire Elon Musk fled town and barely 1 month since his heartless DOGE machine collapsed, yet the damage keeps spreading.

Now, the target is the U.S. Maritime Administration, MARAD, at the Department of Transportation. MARAD strengthens our maritime industry, and it protects our economic and national security. In the Great Lakes, our Nation's third and longest coast, we rely on a strong, capable American shipping fleet. Our economy depends on it.

MARAD supports 13 public and 50 commercial ports across the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

In my district in northwestern Ohio, the Port of Toledo and Sandusky Harbor connect us to global markets for energy, metal, farm commodities, and more.

In 2024, South Bass Island and the Put-in-Bay Port Authority received $10.3 million from MARAD to improve infrastructure, and they needed it.

Our ports generate real dollars for families and jobs, nearly $900 million in annual economic activity and 8,000 jobs by the latest count.

Apparently, this does not matter to the President and his administration. Unemployment has been rising.

Let's be honest. DRP does not mean Deferred Resignation Program. It means destroy, ruin, and punish.

Madam Speaker, stop this madness. Protect MARAD. Protect our ports. Protect our workers. Protect and grow jobs in America.

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