PoliticalRepoPoliticalRepo

United States · Bill · HR

H.R. 4005 (113th)

Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014

referredUnited States· United States Congress· EN

Introduced

6 February 2014

Last action

—

Status

Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Sponsors

—

Subjects

Discovery layer

Source updated

7 April 2025

Official sourceDownload fileView documentsShare

Summary

Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014 - Authorizes FY2015-FY2016 appropriations for the Coast Guard and the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC). Authorizes, for each such fiscal year, an end-of-year strength for active duty personnel of 43,000 and specified average military training student loads. Reduces from 7,200 to 6,700 the number of commissioned officers on the active duty promotion list, subject to current exceptions. Sets forth the skills and qualifications necessary for an individual to be assigned as a waterways operations manager or a facility safety and security specialist. Revises authorities under which Coast Guard centers of expertise conduct education, training, and other mission activities. Authorizes such centers to conduct investigations and evaluate intelligence systems and capabilities. Authorizes the Commandant of the Coast Guard to enter into cooperative agreements with federal, public, and private entities, including academic entities. Prohibits the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating from making a determination that a waterway is navigable for purposes of the Coast Guard’s jurisdiction without conducting a rulemaking under appropriate administrative procedures. Modifies the membership and duties of the Board of Visitors to the Coast Guard Academy. Repeals a limitation that prohibits the issuance of more than one medal of honor to any one person. Requires the Commandant, at specified intervals through the President’s submittal of a budget for FY2019, and every four years thereafter, to submit to Congress an integrated major acquisition mission need statement that identifies current and projected gaps in Coast Guard capabilities using mission hour targets. Directs the Secretary to submit an authorization request to Congress for each fiscal year. Requires the Commandant to: (1) establish, and update on an ongoing basis, an inventory of real property, including submerged lands, under Coast Guard control; and (2) make divestiture and consolidation recommendations to Congress every five years. Modifies the limitation on the number of days within a specified period that an organized training unit or member of the Coast Guard Ready Reserve may be ordered, without consent, to serve in active duty for an emergency augmentation of regular forces. Extends through September 30, 2017, the Commandant’s acquisition workforce expedited hiring authority under which acquisition positions may be designated as positions for which there is a shortage of candidates or a critical hiring need. Authorizes the Commandant to decommission the icebreaker Polar Sea if the Secretary does not make a determination regarding whether it is cost-effective to reactivate such icebreaker. Requires the Commandant to submit to Congress: (1) a strategy to meet the Coast Guard's Arctic ice operations needs through September 30, 2050; and (2) unless the Secretary determines that it is cost-effective to reactivate the Polar Sea, a bridging strategy for maintaining the Coast Guard's polar icebreaking services until at least September 30, 2024 (currently, a bridging strategy for maintaining operations until at least September 30, 2022, is required only if the Secretary determines that it is not cost-effective to reactivate the Polar Sea). Allows the Secretary, each fiscal year beginning in FY2015, to enter into multiyear contracts for the procurement of Offshore Patrol Cutters and associated equipment. Directs the Secretary to report to Congress with schedules and plans for decommissioning, maintaining or extending, and commissioning specified categories of cutters. Revises, repeals, and consolidates various reporting requirements. Bars specified federal shipping laws related to maritime liability from: (1) establishing maritime liens on state or federal fishing permits, and (2) authorizing civil actions to enforce maritime liens on such permits. Specifies that a "fishing permit" is governed solely by the state or federal law under which it was issued and shall not be treated as part of a vessel, or as an appurtenance or intangible of a vessel, for any purpose under federal law. Prohibits the Coast Guard from carrying out international ice patrol agreements with other maritime countries unless a specified minimum reimbursement amount is received from such countries for their proportionate share of the expense of maintaining the service. Exempts from such prohibition the use of Coast Guard aircraft to carry out such agreements if the President determines it to be necessary for national security. Reauthorizes through FY2016 appropriations to the Maritime Administration for small shipyard grant programs. Prohibits a claim for damages or expenses relating to personal injury, illness, or death of a seaman who is a citizen of a foreign nation, arising during or from the engagement of the seaman by or for a passenger vessel duly registered under the laws of a foreign nation, from being brought under U.S. laws if: (1) such seaman was not a permanent resident alien of the United States when the claim arose; (2) the injury, illness, or death arose outside U.S territorial waters; and (3) the seaman, at the time the claim arose, had a right to seek compensation under the laws of either the nation in which the vessel was registered or in which the seaman maintained citizenship or residency. Applies the existing cap of 10 times unpaid wages as the maximum penalty payable to each seaman claiming delayed payment of wages on certain foreign, intercoastal, and coastwise passenger vessels. (Current law applies the cap to all claims in a class action suit by seamen.) Permits merchant mariner licenses for masters, mates, engineers, pilots, operators, and radio officers to be issued to applicants with at least three months of qualifying service on vessels of the uniformed services of appropriate tonnage or horsepower within the preceding seven-year period. Sets forth deadlines for the Coast Guard to provide sea service letters to members or former members. Requires the Secretary to maximize the extent to which armed forces service, training, and qualifications are creditable toward meeting merchant mariner licensing requirements and the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978. Amends the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships to establish an Abandoned Seafarers Fund from which amounts may be appropriated to the Secretary to pay the necessary support of seafarers who: (1) enter, remain, or are paroled into the United States and are involved in an investigation, reporting, documentation, or adjudication of any matter relating to the administration or enforcement of such Act by the Coast Guard; and (2) were abandoned in the United States and have not applied for asylum under specified provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Provides for the reimbursement of vessel owners or operators who provide necessary support to seafarers paroled into the United States to facilitate such investigations, reporting, documentation, or adjudications. Defines “seafarer” as an alien crewman who is employed or engaged in any capacity on board a vessel subject to such Act. Redefines “high-risk waters,” for purposes of determining when owners or operators of U.S. vessels carrying government-impelled cargo are to be reimbursed for the cost of providing armed on-board safety personnel, as waters: (1) so designated by the Commandant in the appropriate maritime security directive, and (2) in which the Secretary of Transportation (DOT) determines an act of piracy is likely to occur based on documented acts of piracy that occurred in such waters during the 12-month period preceding the applicable voyage. Modifies existing requirements to provide for: (1) uninspected passenger vessels in the U.S. Virgin Islands to carry up to 12 passengers (currently, vessels under a certain weight may only carry up to 6 passengers), (2) classification societies to inspect offshore supply vessels, and (3) certain passenger vessels to be equipped with survival craft. Revises FMC Commissioners' terms of office and sets forth FMC conflict of interest requirements. Commercial Vessel Discharge Reform Act of 2014 - Makes permanent a provision prohibiting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or a state with an approved National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act), from requiring an NPDES permit for a covered vessel (a vessel that is less than 79 feet in length or a fishing vessel) for any discharge: (1) of effluent from properly functioning marine engines; (2) of laundry, shower, and galley sink wastes; or (3) that is incidental to the normal operation of a covered vessel. (Currently, such prohibition ends on December 18, 2014.) Revises licensing restrictions and credential requirements relating to foreign citizens who may be engaged to meet the manning requirement for U.S. purse seine fishing vessels: (1) fishing exclusively for highly migratory species in the treaty area under a fishing license issued pursuant to the 1987 Treaty on Fisheries Between the Governments of Certain Pacific Islands States and the Government of the United States of America, or (2) transiting to or from the treaty area exclusively for such purpose. Removes a provision that limits the vessels permitted to engage such foreign citizens to vessels operating in and out of American Samoa or Guam. Authorizes the Commandant to lease submerged lands and tidelands under the control of the Coast Guard for periods longer than five years. Directs DOT to submit to Congress a national maritime strategy. Directs the Secretary to report to Congress concerning negotiations at the International Maritime Organization regarding the establishment of a draft international code of safety for ships operating in polar waters.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

11 official files

Referred in Senate (text)

View fileDownload file

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.

Sources

PoliticalRepo is an index and interpretation layer, not the authoritative legal source.