The Subcommittees on
Water Resources and on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
will conduct a joint hearing on May 15, 2002 on implementation of the National Invasive Species Act of 1996. That act, among other things,
established a voluntary program for ballast water management by ships calling in U.S. ports. It also provided that the program should become
mandatory if participation in the voluntary program is inadequate.