Representative Peter King (R-NY) is this year’s recipient of the “Champion of Maritime Award” from the American Maritime Partnership (AMP). The award recognizes those individuals who have displayed “extraordinary dedication and consistent support for the maritime industry.”
In announcing the award, Thomas Allegretti, AMP’s president, observed, “As a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, “He is a strong and unwavering advocate for the hard-working men and women who make up our industry.”
Describing itself as “the most broad-based coalition ever assembled to represent the domestic maritime industry,” AMP is dedicated to preserving a strong U.S. maritime industry and the cabotage laws that make such a thing possible. Its 450-plus members “span the country and its territories and include vessel owners and operators, shipboard and shoreside unions, shipbuilders and repair yards, equipment manufacturers and vendors, dredging and marine construction contractors, trade associations, other coalitions, pro-defense groups, and companies and organizations in other modes of domestic transportation. These diverse but allied interests all recognize that a strong domestic maritime industry is critical for America’s economic, national, and homeland security, and is best supported by maintaining the Jones Act as the foundation of America’s domestic maritime policy.”
The MTD and a number of its affiliates are members of AMP and have been since its inception more than a decade ago, when it was known as the Maritime Cabotage Task Force.