[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 53 (Wednesday, May 3, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S3328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DODD:
  S. 2500. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Transportation to issue 
a certificate of documentation with appropriate endorsement for 
employment in the coastwise trade for the vessel Puffin; to the 
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.


                  JONES ACT WAIVER FOR THE ``PUFFIN''

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
to waive the 1920 Merchant Marine Act, the so-called Jones Act, to 
allow Mr. Thomas Brooks Brener of Norwalk, Connecticut to commercially 
operate the Puffin, a sailing sloop built in the Netherlands in 1985.
  Mr. Brener seeks the Jones Act waiver in order to reclassify the 
Puffin from a strictly recreational vessel to a charter or commercial 
vessel documented to operate with six or fewer paying passengers. If 
granted this waiver, Mr. Brener intends to provide private sailing 
instruction and captained private and charitable charters out of 
Norwalk, Connecticut.
  The operating plan proposed by Mr. Brener is quite modest and limited 
in scale. With a total length of just under 36 feet and carrying six or 
fewer passengers, the Puffin  is not the foreign built challenge to 
American shipyards and shipping envisioned by the drafters of the 
Merchant Marine Act of 1920. Indeed, it poses no threat to larger U.S. 
coastal shipping interests. On the contrary, instead of being a threat 
to the local coastal trade, reclassification of the Puffin will provide 
a beneficial service to the community of Norwalk and the people of 
southwestern Connecticut by creating an additional recreational and 
small business opportunity.
  I believe it is altogether appropriate to grant a Jones Act waiver 
for the sailing sloop Puffin and I urge the Senate to do so. I ask 
unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2500

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

     SECTION 1. CERTIFICATE OF DOCUMENTATION.

       Notwithstanding section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920 
     (46 U.S.C. App. 883), section 8 of the Act of June 19, 1886 
     (24 Stat. 81, chapter 421; 46 U.S.C. App. 289), and sections 
     12106 and 12108 of title 46, United States Code, the 
     Secretary of Transportation may issue a certificate of 
     documentation with appropriate endorsement for employment in 
     the coastwise trade for the vessel PUFFIN, United States 
     official number 697029.
                                 ______