April 18, 2018

S. 140, Coast Guard Authorization Act (Thune-Nelson-Sullivan Substitute Amendment)

NOTEWORTHY

Background: S. 1129, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017 was favorably reported by the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on May 18, 2017. The Thune-Nelson-Sullivan substitute amendment would replace the text of an unrelated vehicle (S. 140, the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act of 2017) with the updated text from S. 1129. The substitute amendment also incorporates several provisions from H.R. 2825, the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act, which passed the House on July 20, 2017, by a vote of 386–41.

Floor Situation: On April 17, 2018, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered Thune-Nelson-Sullivan substitute amendment as amendment number 2232 to S. 140.

Executive Summary: The substitute amendment is a bipartisan effort to streamline and modernize the operations and authorities of the U.S. Coast Guard. It authorizes appropriations for two years for Coast Guard activities and acquisitions. It improves the capabilities of the Coast Guard and simplifies vessel incidental discharge requirements by replacing a system of federal and state standards with a single national standard.

OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUE

The U.S. Coast Guard is the primary federal authority for maritime safety and security on the U.S. coast and in ports and inland waterways. The Coast Guard is at all times a military service and a branch of the armed forces. It generally operates within the Department of Homeland Security, except during times of war, when it operates as a service in the Navy.

For fiscal year 2018, a total of $12.1 billion was appropriated to the Coast Guard, a $1.7 billion increase from fiscal year 2017. The substitute amendment authorizes funds consistent with the fiscal year 2018 omnibus.

The substitute amendment also improves the Coast Guard’s personnel and contracting flexibility and provides regulatory relief for recreational boaters and commercial vessels. It simplifies vessel incidental discharge requirements by replacing a system of federal and state standards with one national standard.

NOTABLE BILL PROVISIONS

Title II – Authorizations

Section 202 – Authorizations of appropriations

Authorizes appropriations for Coast Guard activities. The two largest accounts authorized are $7.2 billion for operating expenses and $2.6 billion for procurement, construction, renovation, and improvement in fiscal year 2018. Authorizes $7.9 billion for operating expenses and $2.6 billion for procurement, construction, renovation, and improvement in fiscal year 2019.

Section 203 – Authorized levels of military strength and training

Authorizes active duty end–of–year strength of 44,500 Coast Guard personnel.

Section 204 – Authorization of amounts for fast response cutters

Authorizes $167.5 million for both 2018 and 2019 for three additional Coast Guard cutters.

Section 205 – Authorization of amounts for shoreside infrastructure

Authorizes $167.5 million for both 2018 and 2019 for the Coast Guard’s shoreside infrastructure and facilities.

Section 206 – Authorization of amounts for aircraft improvements   

Authorizes $3.5 million for both 2018 and 2019 for analysis and program development for improvements to or replacement of rotary wing aircraft.

Title III – Coast Guard 

Section 302 – Primary duties

Clarifies and updates the Coast Guard’s role in national security and as a member of the armed forces.

Section 303 – National Coast Guard Museum

Repeals the statutory prohibition on using appropriated funds for the engineering and design of a new Coast Guard Museum. It does not remove the prohibition on using appropriated funds for the construction of the museum.

Section 304 – Unmanned aircraft

Requires the Coast Guard to establish a land-based unmanned aircraft system program. Restricts acquisition to existing platforms during any fiscal year when funds are appropriated for offshore patrol cutter design or construction.

Section 305 – Coast Guard health care professionals; licensure portability

Expands portability of medical licenses for health care professionals in the Coast Guard to anywhere within the United States, regardless of where the health care professional or patient is located.  In addition, it authorizes the procurement of an electronic health record system and allows the Coast Guard to bypass competition in contracting requirements, permitting the Coast Guard to use the existing DOD system if it chooses.

Section 306 – Training; emergency response providers

Allows the Coast Guard to fill empty training seats with non-Coast Guard emergency response personnel.

Section 307 – Incentive contracts for Coast Guard yard and industrial establishments

Authorizes Coast Guard yards or Coast Guard industrial establishments to enter into incentive agreements with wage-grade industrial employees. This authority would allow for additional compensation for industrial employees if goals are met in accelerating the delivery schedule or improving performance of a project. The authority could be used only if the action will benefit the federal government, either through delivery schedule or technical performance of the work.

Section 308 – Confidential investigative expenses

Increases the amount of funds available for confidential investigative expenses from $45,000 to $250,000 per fiscal year. The $45,000 limit was set in 2004 and has not been raised since.

Section 309 – Regular captains; retirement

Makes a technical fix to the statutory retirement provisions so Coast Guard officers promoted at an accelerated rate are not forced to retire earlier than other officers.

Section 310 – Conversion, alteration, and repair projects.

Requires that the assignment of Coast Guard vessel conversion, alteration, and repair projects be based on “economic and military considerations” and provides that such assignment “may not be restricted by a requirement that certain parts of Coast Guard shipwork be assigned to a particular type of shipyard or geographical area.”

Section 311 – Contracting for major acquisitions programs

Provides the Coast Guard with multiple contracting authorities, including the authority to enter into block buy contracts, incremental funding contracts, combined purchases, and multiyear contracts for major acquisition programs.

Section 314 – Commissioned service retirement

Extends through 2019 the existing authority to reduce total commissioned time needed for retirement from 10 to eight years.

Section 315 – Leave for birth or adoption of child

Allows Coast Guard members to take parental leave incrementally or use flexible work schedules at the discretion of the commanding officer. 

Section 317 – Unfunded priorities list

Requires the Coast Guard to submit an annual unfunded priorities list in the president’s budget request.

Section 318 – Safety of vessels of the armed forces

Clarifies that the Coast Guard is authorized to act to protect all military vessels, not just naval vessels.

Section 319 – Protecting against unmanned aircraft

Authorizes the Coast Guard to take action against an unmanned aircraft posing a threat to Coast Guard, military, and other vessels.

Section 320 – Air facilities

Requires congressional notification and public notice and comment before the closure of any Coast Guard Air Facility.

Title IV – Ports and Waterways Safety 

Section 401 – Codification of Ports and Waterways Safety Act

This section codifies provisions of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act in chapter 700 of title 46. 

Section 404 – Rule of construction

Provides that Title IV “is intended only to transfer provisions of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act to title 46, United States Code, and may not be construed to alter” judicial and administrative interpretations of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act.

Section 405 – Advisory committee: repeal

Eliminates the Houston–Galveston Navigation Safety Advisory Committee.

Section 406 – Regattas and marine parades

Authorizes the Coast Guard to issue regulations “promote the safety of life on navigable waters during regattas or marine parades.” Repeals a similar provision in existing law.

Section 407 – Regulation of vessels in territorial waters of United States

Codifies and clarifies authorities to regulate vessels in U.S. territory.

Section 408 – Port, harbor, and coastal facility security

Codifies other provisions of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act in chapter 700 of title 46.

Title V – Maritime Transportation Safety 

Section 501 – Consistency in marine inspections

Requires the Coast Guard to ensure that regulations and standards are interpreted consistently.

Section 502 – Uninspected passenger vessels in St. Louis, County, Minnesota

Provides regulatory relief for certain vessels carrying passengers on Crane Lake in St. Louis County, Minnesota.

Section 503 – Engine cut–off switch requirements

Requires the Coast Guard to issue regulations requiring manufacturers, dealers, and distributors to install engine cut–off switches.

Section 504 – Exception from survival craft requirements

Exempts fishing vessels equipped with auxiliary vessels from certain survival–craft requirements.

Section 505 – Safety standards

Allows vessel owners or operators to request dockside examinations every two years.

Section 506 – Fishing safety grants

Requires the Coast Guard to work with the Department of Health and Human Services on two fishing safety grants programs and reauthorizes each program at $3 million dollars for each of fiscal years 2018 and 2019.

Section 507 – Fishing, fish tender, and fish processing vessel certification

Expands the eligibility of larger vessels to participate in an alternative compliance program. Clarifies the definition of “built” for compliance purposes.

Section 508 – Deadline for compliance with alternative safety compliance program

Allows the Coast Guard to implement an alternative safety compliance program.

Section 511 – Abandoned Seafarers Fund amendments

Makes funds in the Abandoned Seafarers Fund available directly to the department in which the Coast Guard is operating.

Section 512 – Clarification of logbook and entry requirements

Allows the use of electronic logbooks.

Section 513 – Certificates of documentation for recreational vessels

Provides that certificates of vessel endorsement for recreational vessels are effective for five years.

Section 514 – Numbering for undocumented barges

Makes the current requirement for the Coast Guard to number barges discretionary, not mandatory.

Section 515 – Backup Global Positioning System

Requires the Department of Homeland Security in consultation with the Department of Transportation to establish a “land–based, resilient, and reliable alternative timing system” to provide a backup and complement for the timing component of the Global Positioning System.

Section 516 – Scientific Personnel

Clarifies the definition of “scientific personnel.”

Section 517 – Transparency

Requires the Coast Guard publicly to publish letters of determination issued by the National Vessel Documentation Center.

Title VI – Advisory Committees 

Recodifies and makes minor changes to the authority for the National Chemical Transportation Safety Advisory Committee, National Commercial Fishing Safety Advisory Committee, National Merchant Marine Personnel Advisory Committee, National Merchant Mariner Medical Advisory Committee, National Boating Safety Advisory Committee, National Offshore Safety Advisory Committee, National Navigation Safety Advisory Committee, and National Towing Safety Advisory Committee.

Title VII – Federal Maritime Commission 

Section 702 – Authorization

Authorizes Federal Maritime Commission funding at $28.0 million for fiscal year 2018 and $28.6 million for fiscal year 2019, as consistent with the fiscal year 2018 omnibus.

Section 703 – Reporting on impact of alliances on competition

Requires the commission to include in its annual report to Congress an analysis of how purchases by alliances of ocean carriers of certain covered services, as defined in section 704 of the bill, would affect competition.

Section 704 – Definition of certain covered services

Defines “certain covered services” as “berthing or bunkering of the vessel; the loading or unloading of cargo to or from the vessel to or from a point on a wharf or terminal; the positioning, removal, or replacement of buoys related to the movement of the vessel; and with respect to injunctive relief ... towing vessel services provided to such a vessel.”

Section 705 – Reports filed with the commission

Adds “marine terminal operator” to the types of entities that the Federal Maritime Commission can require to submit a report or other information about their business. It also requires the commission to give the reporting entity “a reasonable period of time” to respond.

Section 706 – Public participation

Requires the commission to request information and input from the public when it files a notice with the Federal Register.

Section 707 – Ocean transportation intermediaries

Changes the law relating to license requirements and financial responsibility for ocean transportation intermediaries to say that no person may “advertise” or “hold oneself out” as an ocean transportation intermediary unless the person has a license from the commission. Current law states only that the person may not “act” as an ocean transportation intermediary without a license. This section does not apply to people who carry out ocean transportation intermediary services on behalf of a licensed intermediary.

Section 708 – Common carriers

Prohibits common carriers from transporting cargo for a non–vessel–operating common carrier that does not have the required tariff containing disclosures about the cargo.

Prohibits common carriers from simultaneously participating in a rate discussion agreement and an agreement to share vessels in the same trade in such a way as to reduce competition or increase transportation cost.

Section 709 – Negotiations

Prohibits common carriers from grouping together to negotiate with a tug or towing vessel service provider. The section also prohibits groups of common carriers from negotiating with respect to a vessel operated by an ocean common carrier unless the negotiations are consistent with antitrust laws. The section specifically exempts the setting and publishing of a joint through rate by a conference, joint venture, or association of ocean common carriers.

Section 710 – Injunctive relief sought by the commission

Empowers the Federal Maritime Commission to seek an injunction to stop activities which lessen competition, in addition to existing authority to seek injunctions to stop behavior that reduces transportation service or unreasonably.

Section 711 – Discussions

Permits the Federal Maritime Commission to hold discussions, including private ones, outside of its formal meeting process, so long as it reports on the attendees and topics discussed.

Section 712 – Transparency

Requires the commission to report to the Congress twice a year on its regulations not yet complete.

Section 713 – Study of bankruptcy preparation and response

Instructs the comptroller general to study and report to Congress on how a major ocean carrier filing for bankruptcy would affect the supply chain for ocean transportation.

Section 714 – Agreements unaffected

Provides that the bill should not be construed to limit or amend the definition of “agreement” regarding the exclusion of maritime labor agreements, such as a collective bargaining agreement.

Title VIII – Miscellaneous

Section 802 – Corrections to provisions enacted by Coast Guard Authorization Acts

Clarifies that a statutory waiver for a specific vessel in the Howard Coble Coast Guard and Maritime Authorization Act of 2014 includes a fishery endorsement.

Section 804 – Extension of authority

Extends the authority for the Coast Guard to designate certain positions in shortage and use noncompetitive hiring authorities to recruit and appoint highly qualified people to the positions.

Section 805 – Coast Guard ROTC program

Requires the Coast Guard to report on the feasibility of and need for a Coast Guard ROTC program.

Section 806 – Currency detection canine team program

Requires the Coast Guard to establish a program to allow the use of canine currency teams for law enforcement purposes.

Section 807 – Center of expertise for Great Lakes oil spill search and response

Establishes the Center of Expertise for Great Lakes Oil Spill Preparedness and Response.

Section 808 – Public safety answering points and maritime search and rescue coordination

Requires DHS to review Coast Guard policy and procedures “for public safety answering points and search-and-rescue coordination with State and local law enforcement entities” to minimize the possibility of improper routing of maritime 911 calls and assure the Coast Guard is able to carry out its search and rescue mission effectively.

Section 809 – Ship shoal lighthouse transfer: repeal

Repeals the statutory provision for the transfer of the Ship Shoal Lighthouse to the city of Berwick, Louisiana, because the city has declined the transfer.

Section 810 – Land exchange, Ayakulik Island, Alaska

Authorizes the secretary of the interior to transfer ownership of a tract of federal land in Women’s Bay, Alaska, in exchange for the transfer of Ayakulik Island to federal control. 

Section 811 – Use of Tract 43

Reduces reporting from monthly to semiannually regarding the number of Coast Guard personnel who carry out missions on tract 43, which is Coast Guard property on the island of St. Paul, Alaska.

Section 812 – Coast Guard maritime domain awareness

Requires the Coast Guard to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to assess existing and emerging technologies for cost reduction and improved efficiency for the Coast Guard.

Section 813 – Monitoring

Authorizes a one–year pilot program to determine how aircraft–based surveillance affects illegal maritime activities in the Alaskan and Western Pacific regions. 

Section 814 – Reimbursements for non–federal construction costs of certain aids to navigation

Authorizes the Coast Guard to reimburse a non-federal entity for the construction of a navigational aid necessary for safe marine transportation on a federally authorized navigation channel.

Section 815 – Towing safety management system fees

Requires the Coast Guard to review and compare the costs of inspections performed by the Coast Guard and third parties and to update the fee structure if warranted.

Section 816 – Oil spill disbursements auditing and report

Amends an audit requirement for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

Section 817 – Fleet requirements assessment and strategy

Requires the Coast Guard to assess its at-sea fleet and report to Congress on the results of its assessment. Directs the Coast Guard to “ensure continuity of ... coverage, to the maximum extent practicable, in the locations that may lose assets” due to recapitalization of Coast Guard vessels.

Section 818 – National security cutter

Requires the Coast Guard to notify Congress of a new standard method for tracking operational employment of major cutters before it may certify an eighth national security cutter as ready for operation.

Section 819 – Acquisition plan for inland waterway and river tenders and bay-class icebreakers

Requires the Coast Guard to provide Congress with a plan to replace its fleet of inland waterway and river tenders and certain icebreakers.

Section 820 – Great Lakes icebreaker acquisition

Authorizes the Coast Guard to construct an icebreaker for the Great Lakes. 

Section 821 – Polar icebreakers

Requires the Coast Guard to conduct an enhanced maintenance program on the cutter Polar Star in order to maintain heavy ice-breaking capability until the Coast Guard’s new icebreakers are complete.

Section 823 – Arctic planning criteria

Authorizes the Coast Guard to approve a vessel response plan for a vessel operating in the Arctic. Requires the Coast Guard to report to Congress on the assets it has for an oil spill response in the Arctic.

Section 824 – Vessel response plan audit

Directs GAO to audit the Coast Guard’s verification and approval process for vessel response plans.

Section 825 – Waters deemed not navigable waters of the United States for certain purposes

Provides regulatory relief for the mule-powered vessel, the Volunteer, on the Illinois and Michigan Canal.

Section 826 – Documentation of recreational vessels

Allows Coast Guard personnel performing non-recreational vessel documentation functions to perform recreational vessel documentation functions in certain circumstances.

Section 827 – Equipment requirements; exemption from throwable personal flotation devices requirement

Exempts certain recreational whitewater vessels from having to carry an additional flotation cushion. 

Section 828 – Visual distress signals and alternative use

Requires the Coast Guard to develop a performance standard for the alternative use and possession of visual distress alerting and locating signals.

Section 829 – Radar refresher training

Eliminates the requirement for mariners to complete refresher or recertification courses to maintain a radar observer endorsement.

Section 830 – Commercial fishing vessel safety national communications plan

Requires the Coast Guard to develop and implement a commercial fishing vessel safety national communications plan.

Section 831 – Authorization for marine debris program

Authorizes $2 million in funding for Coast Guard marine debris functions.

Section 832 – Atlantic Coast port access route study recommendations

Requires the Coast Guard to notify Congress within 30 days of actions taken to carry out the recommendations in the Atlantic Coast Port Access Route Study.

Section 833 – Drawbridges

Requires DHS to issue a deviation approval letter and publish a notice in the Federal Register upon any temporary changes to a drawbridge schedule.

Section 834 – Waiver

Exempts the Saugatuck, Michigan, chain ferry from certain licensing requirements.

Section 835 – Fire-retardant materials

Sets standards for the Delta Queen related to fire-retardant materials.

Section 836 – Letters of determination

Requires the Coast Guard to issue a coastwise and a fishery endorsement for the vessel America’s Finest upon the fulfillment of certain certification requirements.

Section 837 – Temporary limitations

Adjusts the allocation quotas for certain fishing vessels for Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska fisheries.

Section 838 – Transfer of Coast Guard property in Jupiter Island, Florida, for inclusion in Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge

Transfers the specified Coast Guard property to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Section 839 – Emergency response

Directs the Coast Guard to request that National Offshore Safety Advisory Committee examine whether there are unnecessary regulatory barriers to the use of certain vessels in responding to disasters.

Section 840 – Use of funds in WMAT settlement fund for WMAT Rural Water System

Authorizes the secretary of the interior to use all or a portion of the $78 million White Mountain Apache Tribe Settlement Fund for the completion, operation, and maintenance of the WMAT rural water system.

Section 841 – Drawbridges consultation

Requires the Coast Guard to consult regularly with owners or operators of rail lines used by Amtrak between New Orleans and Orlando when considering permanent changes to drawbridge operations.

Title IX – Vessel Incidental Discharge Act

Ships take in water from coastal port areas and hold the water in their ballasts during transit to help them maintain balance. During normal operations, the ships may discharge this ballast water. The ballast water can contain aquatic nuisance species, or invasive species.

As the Congressional Research Service reports, the regulatory system for this issue is complex. In the 115th and previous Congresses, lawmakers have introduced of legislation to address the regulatory questions about vessel discharges. This title would authorize the Coast Guard to be the lead agency in regulating vessel discharges and establish a uniform set of national standards.

Section 903 – Treatment of existing ballast water regulations

There will be a period of transition to the regulations of ballast water discharges under this bill. This section provides that, until those regulations are complete, the related regulations and sanctions under the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990 remain in force.

Section 904 – Ballast water discharge requirements

Permits owners and operators of vessels to discharge ballast water in the United States’ navigable waters only if the water is treated and the discharge is done according to the standards determined by the secretary of the department under which the Coast Guard is operating under this act. The section sets requirements for vessels entering the Saint Lawrence River and Hudson River, including that they exchange their ballast water offshore. The section stipulates how many miles offshore the exchange must occur, based on if the vessel has operated outside the U.S. and Canada’s exclusive economic zone or entirely within the zone. Additionally, the section requires vessels operating along the Pacific Coast to exchange their ballast water 50 nautical miles offshore.

The section provides for exemptions, such as when a discharge is necessary for safety or if it happened after the vessel was damaged. It states that vessels such as those that discharge ballast water in an on-shore facility or with permanent ballast water, do not have to install a system to manage the water. Additionally, until the secretary does a cost-benefit analysis, vessels that operate entirely within the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River do not have to meet the ballast water discharge standard.

Section 905 – Approval of ballast water management systems

Sets the terms under which the secretary can approve ballast water management systems.

Section 906 – Review and raising of ballast water discharge standard

Directs the secretary to review the standards for ballast water discharges by January 1, 2024, and every 10 years after that. The secretary is instructed to assess whether changing the standards to account for new, available technologies would reduce the risk of invasive species being introduced; the section specifies a stringency test the secretary is to use in the assessment.

Section 907 – National ballast water information clearing house

Amends the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990 to set up a clearinghouse for data on ballast water. It requires owners or operators of commercial vessels covered under this title would be required to report on their ballast water management within six hours of arriving in a U.S. port or other destination.

Section 908 – Requirements for discharges incidental to the normal operation of a commercial vessel

Requires the secretary and the EPA administrator to regulate best practices for normal incidental discharges of commercial vessels that are 79 feet or longer. The requirements do not apply to vessels shorter than 79 feet or to commercial fishing vessels. The best practices must mitigate the effects of the discharges on the marine environment and not compromise vessel safety, among other terms.

Section 909 – Best management practices for Great Lakes vessels

Requires the secretary to work with the EPA administrator to regulate on best practices for ballast water and incidental discharges as part of vessels’ normal operations; the best practices will apply to commercial vessels that are 79 feet or longer and operate in the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River.

Section 910 – Judicial review

Allows for a person to petition for a review of the final regulations within 120 days of publication

Section 911 – State enforcement

Directs the secretary to work with state governors to develop and publish federal and state procedures for inspection, data management, and enforcement of the ballast water discharge standards this title establishes. The section also prohibits states and local governments from developing and enforcing new regulations and standards for ballast water or incidental discharges.

Section 912 – Effect on other laws

Explains this title’s effect on existing federal laws. For example, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act would not apply to ballast water discharge or incidental discharge from a commercial vessel.

Section 913 – Quagga mussel

Directs the secretary of the interior to produce regulations that state that the quagga mussel is an injurious species and is prohibited from being imported into the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and other U.S. possessions or transported between them. Current law prohibits such importation or transportation of other species.

Section 914 – Coastal aquatic invasive species mitigation grant program and mitigation fund

Directs the secretary of commerce and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to set up a grant program aimed at mitigating coastal aquatic invasive species and establishes a Coastal Aquatic Invasive Species Mitigation Fund, to be funded by penalties. Grant recipients must provide 50 percent nonfederal matching funds and can use grants for activities such as those that prevent, mitigate, or get rid of invasive species; restore affected habitats; or result in new ballast water treatment technologies.

Section 915 – Rules of construction

Provides that the standards set out in Title IX do not affect vessels engaged in innocent passage.

Title X – Hydrographic Services and Other Matters 

Section 1001 – Reauthorization of Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998

Reauthorizes the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998 for fiscal years 2018-2021. Of the amounts authorized for each year, it sets aside $10 million for Artic hydrographic surveys and $2 million for services that delineate the U.S. Continental Shelf. NOAA’s hydrography activities involve surveying Earth’s navigable waters, to measure and describe their depth, seafloor shape, tide and currents, and identify obstructions such as shipwrecks that would affect safe navigation.

Section 1002 – System for tracking and reporting all-inclusive cost of hydrographic survey

Directs the commerce secretary to develop and implement a system to track the total costs of its hydrographic activities, including hydrographic survey vessel costs, run a cost analysis, and report its findings within one year of enactment. This section also directs the secretary to make plans to increase contracting with nongovernmental entities for hydrographic data collection activities.

Section 1003 – Homeport of certain research vessels

Permits the secretary to receive non-federal funds for activities relating to NOAA research vessels in Ketchikan, Alaska, and St. Petersburg, Florida.

ADMINISTRATION POSITION

As of April 17, 2018, the administration has not released a statement of administration policy on the substitute amendment.

COST

As of April 17, 2018, no cost estimate is available for the substitute amendment.