RMEA passes subcommittee

WASHINGTON – The Recreational Marine Employment Act of 2005 (H.R. 940) was passed out of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Workforce Committee yesterday and now goes to the full committee, the National Marine Manufacturers Association said in a release yesterday.

NMMA called the development is “a positive step forward for RMEA, for the National Marine Manufacturers Association, and all the stakeholders who are working to have it enacted into law.”

“NMMA has devoted considerable time and man-hours educating members of Congress on the need to amend the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act to completely exempt the recreational marine industry from its expensive and duplicative insurance premiums,” said NMMA vice president of Government Relations Monita Fontaine. “We will continue to push for this legislation, which will save our membership millions of dollars, money that can be better spent by reinvesting in individual companies and by hiring additional skilled labor.”

Subcommittee Chairman Charlie Norwood (R-GA) convened the markup by stating that RMEA is a “common sense bill.” He indicated that Congress did a good job of exempting nearly the entire industry through the 1984 amendments, but that over the past 20 years there have been “dramatic changes” to the industry, and Congress “needs to update the law.”

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