H.R. 2830 Bill Passes On 395-7 Vote
Bill Would Place Stricter Rules On Cruise Lines
April 24, 2008
HR2830 - Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2007
The United States House Of Representatives, passed by a huge margin today, a large enough margin to over-ride a President Bush veto, a bill that would tighten up controls on a run-a-muck industry.
Hr2830 passed by a 395-7 vote. Seven Republicans voted against the measure.
The house pproved the bill, inspite of the veto threat, by making the Coast Guard enforce security zones around eight liquefied natural gas terminals and any arriving tankers.
"I am simply appalled that this administration would refer to protecting our families as an unwarranted and unnecessary subsidy," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who chairs the House Transportation subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard.
The bill also sets stricter crime reporting requirements for cruise ships and requires double hulls around fuel tanks on large cargo ships to prevent catastrophic oil spills like the one in San Francisco Bay in November.
To address complaints that crimes aboard cruise ships are underreported, the bill makes line operators report to the Homeland Security Department all security incidents, including deaths, serious bodily injuries and sexual assaults.
Cruise lines also are required to post crime statistics on an Internet site maintained by the Coast Guard, with links from the cruise line public Web sites.
"The bottom line is, the crime statistics provided by the cruise industry are inaccurate and inadequate," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn. "This has got to change."
The bill also would increase the Coast Guard by 1,500 members to 47,000.
Section 308 requires cruise lines and other operators to keep crew records for not less than five years. This would aid in investigation that involve crew and suspects or witnesses.
Section 322 of the bill, excludes merchant marines, which include cruise ship crew members from being fingerprinted, because they are fingerprinted when they get their C1D1 visa. I mentioned this in another artcile on passenger fingerprinting, posted today.
Section 405 places a cap on crew member class action law suits. It is capped to 10 times the unpaid wage for vessels holding 500 passengers or more.
Section 712 - ADVANCE NOTICE OF PORT ARRIVAL OF SIGNIFICANT OR FATAL INCIDENTS INVOLVING U.S. PERSONS
"Requirement- The Secretary of Homeland Security shall require the owner or operator of a cruise ship that embarks or disembarks passengers in a United States port to notify the Secretary of any covered security incident that occurs on the cruise ship in the course of the voyage (or voyage segment) in which a U.S. person is involved, in conjunction with any advance notice of arrival to a United States port required by part 160 of title 33, Code of Federal Regulations.
(b) Definitions- For the purposes of this section:
(1) COVERED SECURITY INCIDENT- The term `covered security incident' means any act or omission that results in death, serious bodily injury, sexual assault, or a missing person, or poses a significant threat to the cruise ship, any cruise ship passenger, any port facility, or any person in or near the port.
(2) CRUISE SHIP- The term `cruise ship' means a vessel on an international voyage that embarks or disembarks passengers at a port of United States jurisdiction to which subpart C of part 160 of title 33, Code of Federal Regulations, applies and that provides overnight accommodations.
(3) U.S. PERSON- The term `U.S. person' means a citizen of the United States and an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence (as defined in section 101(a)(20) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 (a)(20)).
(4) UNITED STATES- The term `United States' means the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and any other territory or possession of the United States."
In the past, this had been a cruise industry VOLUNTARY agreement. This would right the agreement into U.S. law and make it enforceable.
The entire bill can be viewed - Here
