Rules Committee News

Buck Younger, Vice President of Engineering with VT Halter Marine, was named the Marine Engineer/Naval Architect of the Year by the Mobile Area Council of Engineers (MACE). VT Halter Marine, Inc. (VT Halter Marine), is a company of ST Engineering North America. VT Halter Marine also sponsored the two MACE scholarship winners.In April 2019, VT Halter Marine announced that the U.S. Department of the Navy awarded the company as the prime contractor of a $745,940,860 fixed-price incentive-firm contract for the detail design and construction of the U.S.

The Gulf States Shipbuilders Consortium (GSSC) announced that its fall meeting will be held October 18-19, at the Holiday Inn in Mobile’s historic district. Highlights of the meeting include a presentation by U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope). Byrne will deliver an Update from Washington at the official meeting kick-off at the recently opened GulfQuest Maritime Museum on Oct. 18. Byrne is a member of the prestigious House Rules Committee, Committee on Armed Services, and Committee on Education and the Workforce and is a member of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus.

A big push for deeper water at Jacksonville's port has fallen short in the U.S. House of Representatives as the House Rules Committee voted against allowing the full House to consider an amendment offered by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, that would have authorized a future 47-foot ship channel in Jacksonville, reports 'The Florida Times-Union' online. The rejection means when the full House begins debate soon on the Water Resources Development Act, there will be no chance of adding the deepened ship channel to the massive bill.

ABS continues to cultivate industry expertise for the development and modification of Rules and Guides with the formation of The Offshore Technical Committee of ABS. “ABS once again has taken the lead in working with the offshore industry,” said ABS President and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki. “The Technical Committee of ABS has advised us for many years. The goal of the recent division of The Technical Committee of ABS into separate committees was to refine the focus of each committee to facilitate information exchange for Rule and Guide development and modification. ABS is the first class society to take this approach. The first meeting of the The Offshore Technical Committee, hosted 3-4 May 2012 in Houston, was attended by a majority of the 40 members elected by The Council of ABS.

Legislation introduced by Sen. Robert Molaro (D-Cook) provides if any riverboat gaming licenses are issued for Chicago or Cook County, they could go only to the county or municipal governing board. The governing board would then conduct an auction and grant the opportunity to manage the riverboat gaming operation to the highest qualified bidder. Senate Bill 1193 is intended to ensure if there are going to be riverboat casinos in Cook County, they are city- or county-owned so virtually all of the revenue generated by the gaming operations goes to the city or county. Additionally, House Bill 276, legislation to authorize the opening of an unspecified number of additional riverboat casinos, was returned to the House Rules Committee from the House Executive Committee.

The Passenger Vessel Association (PVA) annual convention at MariTrends 2002 will be held February 16-19, 2002 at the Grand Casino-Biloxi, Biloxi, Miss. MariTrends 2002, dubbed the passenger vessel industry’s comprehensive convention, will allow attendees and exhibitors to engage in a variety of seminars, workshops aimed at informing and assisting current operators small and large, prospective operators and government officials. U.S. Sen. Trent Lott (D-Miss.) will serve as keynote speaker for the opening general session on Saturday, February 16, beginning at 4:00 p.m. The Mississippi native and Senate Minority leader who serves on the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, the Finance committee and the Rules Committee, Sen. Lott is known as a strong advocate of U.S.