Helping Florida's Marine Industry

Floor Speech

Ms. FRANKEL of Florida. Mr. Speaker, south Florida has a booming marine industry, from our huge freighters to our Sunday boaters, generating over $8.9 billion a year to our local economy. So I am very proud to join with Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Kristy Hebert, owner of Ward's Marine Electric, in trying to fix a problem.

Businesses like Kristy's have to pay upward of $200,000 a year for providing recreational boat services, the same as companies that are providing services to 100,000-ton petroleum vessels. Obviously, the risks are different, and so H.R. 3896 is going to fix this problem. Workers are still going to be protected, and at an affordable cost for the employers.

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