§53406 Payments

Summary

The Secretary must pay each program participant a set amount for every vessel covered by an operating agreement. The yearly amounts are: $8,160,000 for 2025 and 2026; $8,380,000 for 2027 and 2028; $8,606,000 for 2029 and 2030; $8,839,000 for 2031 and 2032; $9,078,000 for 2033 and 2034; $9,323,000 for 2035 and 2036; $9,574,000 for 2037 and 2038; and $9,833,000 for 2039 and 2040. Payments are made in 12 equal monthly installments at the end of each month. Payments cannot be cut unless this law or section 51307(b) allows it. To get payment, the participant must certify, under rules the Secretary sets, that the vessel met the operation rules in section 53405(a) for at least 320 days in the fiscal year. Time in drydock, surveys, inspections, or repairs counts as operation days. No payment may be made for a vessel that is not run under an operating agreement, is over 20 years old, or is also operating under chapter 531. The payment generally cannot be reduced for carrying military or other preference cargoes or for days the vessel is chartered to the U.S. Government. But no payment is allowed for any day the vessel carries more than 7,500 tons of civilian bulk preference cargo. Payments are reduced proportionally for each day under 320 that the vessel is not operated per section 53405. A participant cannot get payments while it "participates in noncontiguous domestic trade," except if it meets the 75% U.S. ownership test in section 50501. "Participates in noncontiguous domestic trade" means owning, chartering, or operating a vessel that moves cargo between the contiguous 48 states and Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico (excluding points in Alaska north of the Arctic Circle).