Because it is much better to have the unelected handful of tech bros who run the entire country now tell mariners how to run their industry, than it is to have mariners do that.
Duh.
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Hmmm… so like if someone institutes and/or increases tariffs…
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From the article:
“She said the directive has put on hold several important pending issues before the committees, including gathering industry input into implementing the Safer Seas Act, a 2022 law that aims to prevent sexual assault and harassment on commercial vessels in U.S. waters, transforming the outdated mariner credentialing system, engaging with international partners to negotiate changes to mariner training and qualification requirements, and revising a policy on the design and operation of vessels transporting liquefied natural gas.
In the past, committees have offered recommendations on improving Subchapter M regulations (the safety scheme for operating towing vessels), and on training and experience necessary for mariners to work on vessels using alternative fuels.”
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If your asking me to justify their existence or discredit them be shut down then those boards were begging to be shuttered.
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Finally…
Not sure I see the benefit to letting go credentialed professional mariners providing volunteer industry specific guidance at no cost to the government beyond travel to the meetings.
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Why stop there? Might as well shut down the NTSB while we’re at it.
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I agree. As Senior Vice President Donald has pointed out, if a plane crashes it’s always because of diversity hires. Why waste all the mumbo-jumbo investigation stuff?
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Don’t forget plastic straws are back.
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There may not be any US Government left to worry about day after tomorrow (except DOGE of course):
Washington braces for a government shutdown — as DOGE cuts continue
The White House would have broad power to decide what agencies stay open if funding lapses.
And it’s still not clear what parts of the government would close in a shutdown: The White House budget office removed Biden-era guidance on shutdown plans from its website earlier this week. A spokesperson did not reply to requests for comment about how much of the government would remain operational during a shutdown.
Government shutdown update
Ahead of a March 14 shutdown deadline, the House approved a GOP proposal nearly on a party-line vote that would keep the federal government running through the end of September, but in the Senate, it will need at least seven Democrats to get around a potential filibuster.
Source: https://wapo.st/4ioPEWl (Gift article. No paywall)
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Well, shutting down the whole dog-and-pony show is the best thing anyway, right? If the government is shut down it can’t waste any more money. Basically, it’s like the best thing. A financial stimulus.
Kinda like if you’re sinking a ship the best thing to do is run her up on the beach to keep her from sinking more.
If any of you liberals played fourth-dimensional chess you’d understand that.
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Who would you rather have deciding how to implement laws and regulations? Experienced professionals in the field or idiots in DC that have no idea what they’re regulating? It seems like a no brainer. The real question is why shut them down? Try justifying your god emperor’s decisions for a change.
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How many of these committees are controlled by vessel owners or their lobbying groups, such as the AWO that want to keep manning levels and wages low vs. committees controlled by actual working mariners that want more crew and higher wages?
Take Subchapter M as an example: a typical COI for a typical tug only requires 4 crewmen.
If this is the result of the towing advisory committee’s work, then yes, let’s fire them all.
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Shrinking the government size and reach is a good thing. Will mistakes be made? Sure. But allowing it to go on spending and growing is a fool’s errand.
That being said, the guy leading the charge has, if nothing else, lied publicly and repeatedly about his VIDEO GAME ACCOMPLISHMENTS! And that concludes everything I will say about Elon Musk.
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Theres not one captain on any of the msc tankers in Norfolk they have all quit …
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I meet a former chairman of the AWO twice & worked for him for 3.5 years. The only good thing I have to say about him is, he was a job creator. Other than that, he was seedy, conceited & ran near death traps with a few fatalities under his tenure. I got the feeling he thought of his employees less than what he thought of the old, falling apart equipment. He & the corrupt union ensured wages were low compared to other similar sized operations. When he sold his company, the buying company, Kirby, complained in quarterly reports for the next year about all the shoddy maintenance & undeclared issues with their purchased fleet. I never had much respect for AWO after finding out they elected him run the outfit. Any left of center, pro-union, “screw the rich” mariner should be an enemy of the AWO in my opinion.
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Unfortunately, given POTUS’s past behavior and who he chose to nominate to Sec. Def. and other positions, I would not expect this current administration to actively support anything that would help prevent sexual assault.
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Except every government shutdown has included backpay for all furloughed employees, so in essence every shutdown is a paid vacation for most federal workers, and yet all those “lazy” federal workers would still prefer to work and serve the public rather than sit at home getting paid while doing anything but work. Kind of pokes holes in that whole lazy government worker theory.
They’ve already given a number of fed. employees a “fork in the road” to get paid their regular wages and not work for 7 months so a shutdown type paid vacation on top of it would totally make sense. I know of multiple career fed. workers who were going to retire anyway but because of the fork in the road they now will receive 7 more months of pay prior to retirement without having to work a single extra day. Now that’s efficiency!
This administration likes to claim that federal workers are lazy but then they seem perfectly happy to pay those same workers wages to not work. I’m confused.
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Except the pay stops but bills don’t. Getting back pay months later doesn’t help much when your homeless.
If you believe the government will pay that then I have Ocean front real estate in Colorado to sell you.
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Oh I totally agree. Shutdowns suck and even just a delay in a paycheck is a crappy thing. I just find it interesting that the people who seem convinced that government is wasteful and the workers lazy are often the same people who seem to have no issue forcing a shutdown on principles, which then results in the entire federal government being paid (eventually) their usual salaries to do zero work.
I agree that any “promise” from POTUS or Musk is pretty much worthless given both men’s track record and I certainly wouldn’t have taken the deal if offered to me. But again if you are looking to be a good steward of tax payer money why would you support even the idea of paying workers 7 months salary to do zero work? No “tax and spend” Democrat ever would have been brash enough to suggest we pay workers for 7 months while they don’t do any work and are free to go get other jobs while still collecting a government paycheck but that’s what has been done here. There are federal workers that did absolutely zero work last pay period and yet they collected a full pay check with full federal benefits and will potentially do that for another 6 months! Thanks DOGE.