Senate Passes Transportation Appropriations
By a vote of 88 to 7, the Senate passed its version of the Fiscal Year 2008 Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill on September 12. The Senate passed $104.7 billion bill is some $300 million more than the House bill which passed on July 24. Both bills would fully fund the 60-vessel Maritime Security Program at the authorized $156 million level.
The Senate bill would allocate nearly $122.9 million to the Maritime Administration operations and training account, exceeding the House bill by $4 million. In addition, the Senate version would provide $13.4 million for the Title XI Federal Ship Financing Guarantee Program, $10 million more than the House version. Furthermore the Senate bill would appropriate $20 million in capital improvement grants to small shipyards.
Both bills will be the subject of a conference committee to resolve outstanding funding differences. Given the fact that either version of the legislation exceeds the Administration’s request by some $4 billion, primarily due to certain housing programs, and both prohibit the implementation of the NAFTA cross-border trucking program, the President has threatened to veto the legislation.
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TSAC Holds Fall Meeting
Members of the Towing Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) met last week in Laurel, Maryland to discuss various issues relating to shallow-draft inland and coastal waterway navigation and towing safety. During the meeting, the Coast Guard updated the advisory committee on the progress of the inspection of the towing vessel rulemaking noting that agency personnel were working through TSAC’s “redline” recommendations to the draft regulatory conceptual text and vertically briefing various agency personnel up through the chain of command on this high priority regulatory project. TSAC will have the opportunity to review an updated draft regulatory conceptual text although no timeline has been set. The advisory committee proceeded to close two task statements reviewing Coast Guard reports of investigation involving two incidents, one involving a collision and the other a crewmember death. Among the lessons learned from the two accidents were the value of an onboard AIS system, the catastrophic consequences for violation of the Navigation Rules, the need for good “situational awareness,” and the crucial need for communication between deck crew and vessel operator.
The advisory committee progressed to accept two new tasks: 07-02, Review of Draft NVIC Concerning Medical and Physical Evaluation Guidelines for Merchant Mariner Credentials and 07-03, Revision of Forms CG-719K, Merchant Mariner Physical Examination Report: and CG 719/E, “Merchant Marine Certification of Fitness for Entry Level Ratings.” TSAC formed a Working Group to engage in a thorough comprehensive review of the draft medical NVIC and the current forms which were last revised in 2004 and provide recommendations as to any changes that may be appropriate. The working group identified certain potential issues for consideration including the demonstration of physical abilities; potentially disqualifying medical conditions, and the alignment of the forms with the draft NVIC. The Working Group will be meeting in November.
TSAC further received updates on several current rulemaking projects, the possible impact on the coastal towing industry of an International Maritime Organization proposal regarding the standardization of near coastal waters and on the Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC) project. With regards to the latter, it was noted that the TWIC reader pilot program would be initiated in several locations throughout the United States, including Los Angeles and Long Beach; port of Brownsville, Texas; Annapolis, Md. at Waterworks Cruises; and New York/New Jersey Port authority including Staten Island Ferry. The Coast Guard will be publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking and two supplemental notices on this issue in the future. A TSAC spring meeting was not scheduled.
Further on TWIC, the Transportation Security Administration/Coast Guard issued a notice in the Federal Register on September 20, announcing the availability of working specifications for TWIC biometric readers and the TWIC contactless smart card application. The working specification is available to review at www.tsa.gov/twic.
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