Supporters who want to save the Delta Queen riverboat are holding a rally at 12 noon on May 5 in Cincinnati at the National Steamboat Monument, just above the Public Landing, where the Delta Queen will be docked.
The Save the Delta Queen Campaign has scheduled speakers, including Gordon C. Greene, former vice president of Greene Line Steamers, as master of ceremonies; U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, who has introduced a bill to allow the Delta Queen to operate after November; Dan Hurley, assistant vice president for history at the Cincinnati Museum Center; Alan Bernstein, owner of BB Riverboats and former Delta Queen crew member; and Mike Berry, president of the Kentucky Derby Festival.
Organizers say the Delta Queen is the last traditional steamboat carrying overnight passengers on America's inland waterways and has been designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1966, it was "inadvertently caught in the technical provisions of the Safety at Sea Act, which was intended to cover ocean-going ships, not riverboats.
Recognizing the difference between boats that operate on rivers, within yards of the shore, and ships that sail the high seas, Congress established an exemption for the Delta Queen in 1968. Since then, the exemption has been renewed nine times, in virtually every case by near-unanimous votes in both the House and the Senate," the campaign says.
Without congressional action, the current exemption will expire on Nov. 1. Bipartisan legislation to extend the exemption, H.R. 3852, was introduced by Chabot, a Republican from Ohio, on Oct. 16.
The bill remains in the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure because Committee Chairman James Oberstar of Minnesota "refuses to release it to the floor," the campaign says.
For more information, visit www.save-the-delta-queen.com
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