[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2193 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2193

    To amend the Fishermen's Protective Act of 1967 to require the 
 Secretary of State to reimburse owners of certain fishing vessels for 
 certain fees paid by such owners to governments of foreign countries, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                June 15 (legislative day, June 7), 1994

Mrs. Murray (for herself and Mr. Gorton) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Fishermen's Protective Act of 1967 to require the 
 Secretary of State to reimburse owners of certain fishing vessels for 
 certain fees paid by such owners to governments of foreign countries, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REIMBURSEMENT AND RECOVERY OF FEES.

    (a) In General.--The Fishermen's Protective Act of 1967 (22 U.S.C. 
1971 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
section:
    ``Sec. 11. (a) Subject to subsection (c), the Secretary of State 
shall reimburse an owner of a commercial fishing vessel of the United 
States for the amount of any fee described in subsection (b) that is 
collected from the owner.
    ``(b) Subsection (a) applies to any fee collected from an owner of 
a vessel referred to in that subsection by the government of a foreign 
country in order to permit the vessel to navigate in waters of the 
country that connect with waters of the United States if--
            ``(1) the owner pays the fee under protest; and
            ``(2) the Secretary determines that the collection of the 
        fee is contrary to applicable international law.
    ``(c)(1) An owner of a commercial fishing vessel seeking 
reimbursement for the amount of a fee under this section shall submit 
to the Secretary a request for reimbursement of the amount of the fee.
    ``(2) The request shall include any information with respect to the 
payment of the fee that the Secretary determines appropriate, 
including--
            ``(A) a copy of the receipt indicating payment of the fee; 
        and
            ``(B) an affidavit attesting that the owner paid the fee 
        under protest.
    ``(3) The owner shall submit the request not later than 90 days 
after the payment of the fee.
    ``(d) The Secretary shall take any actions that the Secretary 
considers appropriate in order to recover from a foreign country the 
amount of any reimbursement made by the Secretary under this section 
with respect to a fee collected by that country.
    ``(e) For purposes of this section:
            ``(1) The term `commercial fishing vessel of the United 
        States' means any vessel of the United States engaged in 
        commercial fishing activities or operations.
            ``(2) The term `owner', in the case of a commercial fishing 
        vessel, includes any charterer of the vessel.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--(1) The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect on June ____, 1994.
    (2) An owner of a commercial fishing vessel who pays a fee referred 
to in subsection (b) of section 11 of the Fishermen's Protective Act of 
1967, as added by subsection (a), during the period beginning on June 
____, 1994, and ending on the date of the enactment of this Act shall 
submit to the Secretary of State a request for reimbursement for the 
fee under such section 11 not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.

                                 <all>