House Approves Save Our Seas Act

New legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday aims to address maritime transportation safety issues raised by the El Faro sinking, promote the U.S. Coast Guard’s awareness of technologies that could help improve service mission performance, and reduce marine debris.

The Save Our Seas Act (S. 756), which was approved in the House by voice vote, combines several pieces of bipartisan legislation recently approved by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The bill will need to be approved by the Senate before making it to the President’s desk.

The Save Our Seas Act promotes continued national and international efforts to address the growing amount of marine debris entering the ocean environment. The provision urges the administration to support research and development on systems and materials that would reduce the amount of waste that enters the ocean and work with nations that discharge large amounts of solid waste into the ocean by sharing technologies and infrastructure to prevent, reduce or mitigate those land-based sources from entering the marine environment.

The Maritime Safety Act of 2018 (H.R. 6175) addresses maritime safety issues that were raised in the Commandant of the Coast Guard’s final action memo in response to the sinking of the El Faro. This provision of the bill will ensure timely weather forecasts, emergency safety gear with locator beacons, float-free voyage data recorders with integrated emergency position indicating beacons and other safety improvements.

The Coast Guard Blue Technology Center of Expertise Act (H.R. 6206) establishes a Blue Technology Center of Expertise to help promote awareness within the Coast Guard of the range and diversity of so-called Blue Technologies – new and emerging maritime domain awareness technologies, especially more cost effective unmanned technologies – and how the use of such technologies could enhance Coast Guard mission readiness and performance. The bill also enables the sharing and dissemination of Blue Technology information between the private sector, academia, nonprofits and the Coast Guard.

“This legislation will help keep our oceans cleaner, keep our mariners safer, and help the Coast Guard to acquire new technologies to meet their mission needs,” said Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).

Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Ranking Member John Garamendi (D-Calif.), said, “Every year, millions of tons of plastics and debris enter the world’s oceans, harming entire ecosystems and threatening the global food supply. This bill will give our Coast Guard greater resources to tackle this growing concern. The bill also addresses crucial maritime safety issues by implementing recommendations made in the wake of the tragic sinking of the El Faro.”

Garamendi added that the legislation to establish a Blue Technology Center of Expertise for the Coast Guard will promote the use of advanced ocean technologies and facilitate exchanges between the Coast Guard, academia and the private sector.

Peter DeFazio, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member (D-Ore.), said the bill “starts to address the serious marine environmental threat posed by marine debris,” He continued, “The Act includes important maritime legislation addressing the NTSB’s recommendations following the tragic sinking of the El Faro, and legislation to boost the Coast Guard’s use of blue technology.”

The House also approved H.R. 6414, a bill to extend a deadline for the promulgation of regulations under the tribal transportation self-governance program. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (P.L. 114-94) established the Tribal Transportation Self-Governance Program (Program), which directed the Department of Transportation to use a negotiated rulemaking process to establish the regulations for the Program and set a deadline for those regulations. H.R. 6414 extends the deadline for the proposed regulations and the Department’s authority to issue these regulations.

“As the sponsor of section 1121 of the FAST Act, it is my hope that the tribes and DOT will use this time to engage in meaningful dialogue and cooperatively develop a tribal self-governance rule. This bill to provide an extension of the current deadline, demonstrates that Congress supports ongoing discussion among the parties, not a one-sided approach,” said DeFazio.

U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), said, “The FAST Act requires the Department of Transportation to use a negotiated rulemaking process to establish the regulations to implement the Program. It also set deadlines for the issuance of the regulations and H.R. 6414 would extend those deadlines. This bill will ensure that there is an opportunity for a true negotiated rulemaking process that is not one-sided and that respects tribal self-determination. Without this extension, I am concerned that the Department will move forward with implementing the program in a way that is not helpful to the tribes. This would undermine the intent of the provision in the FAST Act and may lead to a lack of tribal participation in the Program.”