Lawmakers and lovers of the Delta Queen steamboat are not singing “Auld Lang Syne” for the riverboat as the year winds down, but are continuing to press for an exemption that would keep the vessel on the water serving overnight passengers.

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The fight has moved up Pennsylvania Avenue from the halls of Congress. Four congressmen have written to President George W. Bush, asking for an executive order to extend an exemption of the Delta Queen has had from the Safety at Seas Act.

“Despite operating under a bipartisan exemption for 42 years, critics of the boat have forced it into dry-dock under the guise of being an unacceptable safety risk due to its advanced age and wooden construction,” wrote House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, and Geoff Davis, R-Ky.

The congressmen also say the real issue keeping the Delta Queen off the river is labor-related, and that “it would be a tragedy to let a labor dispute end the historic Delta Queen’s journey.”

The Delta Queen, along with the American Queen and Mississippi Queen, are docked in New Orleans.All three boats, along with two Portland, Ore.-based boats, the Columbia Queen and the Queen of the West, both of which steam the Columbia and Snake rivers, were put up for sale in the spring by Majestic America Lines.

“We are still in the sales process,” Vanessa Bloy, spokesman for Majestic America, said in a phone interview Monday. “We are still waiting and hoping to get that exemption passed.”

The Safety at Seas Act was passed in 1966 to establish fire and other safety regulations on ocean-going vessels carrying overnight passengers. The wooden superstructure of the Delta Queen makes it subject to the act’s provisions even though it is never out of sight of shore and complies with extensive safety precautions including sprinkler systems, alarms and drills.

In 1968, Congress passed an act exempting the Delta Queen from the law and the exemption has been renewed nine times. The current exemption expired Oct. 31.

“Our supporters are showering the White House with phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mail messages pleading for the president’s help,” said Vickie Webster, head of the Save the Delta Queen Campaign. “He now holds a literally unique and irreplaceable part of our nation’s history in his hands. We are counting on him to keep the Queen alive and plying our rivers, as she has done proudly and safely for 82 years.”

The Delta Queen was built in Sacramento in the mid-1920s and has served as a military troop hospital and transport during wartime as well as riverboat steamer. The boat made frequent ports of call in Vicksburg, the last in November.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com.