Coast Guard Authorization
On April 24, 2008, the House passed the Coast Guard Authorization, H.R. 2830.
Following is an overview of some of the key provisions of this bill, as well as the provisions of the Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act, which will be added to the bill under the rule. There is also an overview of the McNerney amendment on ensuring the Coast Guard’s legal authority to carry out its homeland security missions.
Provides Resources to Strengthen the Coast Guard
- Increases the authorized end-strength of the Coast Guard by 1,500 members to 47,000 and increases funding for the Coast Guard to $8.4 billion ($200 million over the President’s budget) in order to ensure that the Coast Guard can successfully execute all of its missions.
Strengthens the Security of Our Waterways and Ports
- Establishes an Assistant Commandant for Port and Waterways Security who will be a security specialist responsible for all regulations and policies regarding security in our nation’s ports and waterways.
- Authorizes additional maritime security response teams. These teams were first created under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, in direct response to the terrorist attacks on September 11th as a part of DHS’s layered strategy to protect our seaports and waterways. They give the Coast Guard a rapid force capability to provide protection for strategic shipping, high-interest vessels, and other critical infrastructure.
- Authorizes additional canine detection teams to help the Coast Guard interdict illegal drugs, humans and explosives that smugglers try to bring onto our shores.
- Authorizes the Coast Guard Waterway Watch Program, a watch program modeled after Neighborhood Watch programs to allow boaters to notify the Coast Guard of suspicious activity.
- Authorizes an existing Coast Guard biometric program in the Caribbean. This program has been linked to a significant drop in illegal immigrants trying to reach the United States by boat.
- Codifies the Coast Guard practice of protecting security zones around all existing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities and, for each new LNG facility, requiring a certification that the Coast Guard has the resources to protect the facility before such a security plan is approved. Allows state and local entities to assist the Coast Guard in protecting the security zones around LNG facilities.
- Requires DHS to analyze the threat, vulnerability and consequences of a terrorist attack on gasoline and chemical cargo shipments and report the findings to Congress.
- Requires cruise ship owners and operators to notify DHS of security incidents involving a U.S. person that include death, serious bodily injury, and sexual assault that occur on a cruise ship.
- Increases oversight and efficiency of the Transportation Worker Identification Program, the struggling DHS program that would enhance security by requiring biometric identification for port workers.
- Requires DHS to develop a strategic plan to utilize existing assistance programs to help foreign ports and facilities that are found to lack the resources to maintain effective anti-terrorism measures and authorizes the Coast Guard to aid these non-compliant ports in enhancing their security.
Strengthens Marine Safety
- Improves the Coast Guard’s marine safety capabilities by establishing an Assistant Commandant for Marine Safety.
- Strengthens the Marine Safety Program by establishing qualification, training and experience requirements for all marine safety personnel. Qualified marine safety personnel with expertise, experience and continuity will provide an invaluable source of information for both prevention of security threats, and for response to disruptions caused by natural or man-made disasters.
- Enhances requirements for safety equipment to be carried on commercial fishing vessels and requires training for vessel operators. Commercial fishing is the most dangerous job in the United States and has a high rate of injuries and deaths.
Enhances Environmental Protection
- Requires that U.S. vessels carrying more than 600 cubic meters of oil have double hulls around their fuel tanks to prevent the disastrous consequences of accidents such as the one that occurred last November when the COSCO BUSAN released 53,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into San Francisco Bay following its collision with the Bay Bridge.
- Includes the provisions of H.R. 802, the Maritime Pollution Prevention Act, which passed the House on March 23, 2007 by a vote of 359 to 48. These provisions update the 1980 Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (PL 96-478) to add recent international limits on emissions of sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide (which are ozone-depleting substances) from ship exhausts. Specifically, they implement Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships – commonly known as the MARPOL treaty.
- Requires ships to begin installing ballast water treatment systems in 2009 to control the introduction of invasive species into U.S. ports and waterways.
Requires Significant Reforms of the Much-Delayed Deepwater Program
- Includes the provisions of the H.R. 2722, Deepwater Program Reform Act, which the House passed by a vote of 426-0 on July 31, 2007.
- These provisions address the contract management problems with the much-delayed Deepwater program, a $24 billion, 25-year procurement to modernize the Coast Guard’s ships and aircraft. They also overhaul the acquisition and personnel structure of its procurement system. From the beginning, the Deepwater program has been plagued by errors, delays and cost overruns.
- These provisions also require the appointment of a qualified civilian as Civil Acquisitions Officer reporting directly to the Coast Guard Commandant.
H.R. 2399, Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act (rule adds to Coast Guard Authorization)
- The rule adds H.R. 2399, Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act, which passed the House on May 22, 20907 by a vote of 412-0, to the Coast Guard bill upon passage of the Coast Guard bill.
- Provides strong new enforcement tools at the border, including increased criminal penalties for alien smuggling; human trafficking and slavery; drug trafficking; and terrorism and espionage. For example, provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years or fines of up to $100,000, or both, for anyone convicted of trying to smuggle an individual into the United States.
- Subjects smugglers and traffickers to even higher penalties for transporting persons under inhumane conditions, such as in an engine or storage compartment, or for causing serious bodily injury.
- Directs the Department of Homeland Security to check against all available terrorist watch lists alien smugglers and smuggled individuals who are interdicted at U.S. land, air and sea borders.
McNerney Amendment on Ensuring Coast Guard’s Ability to Carry Out Its Homeland Security Missions
The McNerney amendment, made in order by the rule, stipulates that the provisions of this Act governing the marine safety mission of the Coast Guard shall not impair the legal authority of the Coast Guard to carry out its homeland security missions including:
- Protecting ports, waterways, coastal security, and the marine transportation system from an act of terrorism;
- Securing our borders against aliens seeking to unlawfully enter the United States; illegal drugs; firearms; and weapons of mass destruction at ports, waterways, and throughout the marine transportation system;
- Preventing human smuggling operations at ports, waterways, and throughout the marine transportation system;
- Maintaining defense readiness to rapidly deploy defensive port operations and security operations and environmental defense operations;
- Coordinating efforts and intelligence with federal, state, and local agencies to deter, detect, and respond to the threat of terrorism at ports, on waterways, and throughout the marine transportation system;
- Preventing Osama Bin Laden, al Qaeda, or any other terrorist or terrorist organization from attacking the United States or any United States person; and
- Protecting the United States or any United States person from threats posed by weapons of mass destruction or other threats to national security.