---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 57516"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "57516"
heading: "Operating-differential subsidies"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/57516"
units:
  - "Subtitle V — Merchant Marine"
  - "Part F — Government-Owned Merchant Vessels"
  - "Chapter 575 — Construction, Charter, and Sale of Vessels"
  - "Subchapter II — Charters"
---

# §57516. Operating-differential subsidies


If the [Secretary](/usc/46/53101.md?p=8) of Transportation considers it necessary, the [Secretary](/usc/46/53101.md?p=8) may make a contract with a charterer of a [vessel](/usc/46/53501.md?p=9) owned by the [Secretary](/usc/46/53101.md?p=8) for payment of an operating-differential subsidy, on the same terms and conditions, and subject to the same limitations and restrictions, as otherwise provided with respect to payment of operating-differential subsidies to operators of privately-owned [vessels](/usc/46/53501.md?p=9).


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 109–304, § 8(c), Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1667.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised<br>Section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 57516 | 46 App.:1198. | June 29, 1936, ch. 858, title VII, § 708, 49 Stat. 2009; June 23, 1938, ch. 600, § 31, 52 Stat. 962; Pub. L. 97–31, § 12(110), Aug. 6, 1981, 95 Stat. 163. |