[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 209 (Thursday, December 10, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7393-S7395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DUCK BOAT SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2019
Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, July 19, 2018, is a date that we in
Missouri won't ever forget. There were 17 people who lost their lives
and 11 who were injured in a boating accident on Table Rock Lake.
During a severe thunderstorm, a duck boat called Stretch Duck
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7 sank with 31 people aboard, including children. Today marks 875 days
since that tragedy.
To the families and friends who lost loved ones that day, I am sure
that every one of those 875 days since has come with a new and painful
reminder of your loss.
I am here today to honor those who lost their lives, the 17 victims
of that tragedy--a tragedy that should never have happened--and also to
honor the survivors who live with the memory of that tragedy every day.
They deserve to be remembered. They deserve to be respected by this
body, and I am here to do something about it. The time has come to act.
I am here to ask this body to do its job and finally pass my bill
that will impose tough, new security restrictions and measures on every
duck boat operation in America. This is a bill I introduced almost 2
years ago that passed the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation unanimously.
Now, truth be told, it has taken this body far too long to act. The
tragedy in Missouri may have been one of the more recent duck boat
tragedies, but it is far from the first. In 1999, 13 people were killed
when a duck boat sank during a tour of Lake Hamilton in Arkansas. In
the years since, the death toll has climbed to over 40. In 2001, there
was a duck boat accident in Seattle, WA. In 2010, a tugboat on the
Delaware River in Philadelphia collided with a duck boat. In 2013, a
duck boat caught fire in the San Francisco Bay. I could go on.
Now, the National Transportation Safety Board has issued numerous
recommendations to improve duck boat safety, and it has issued many of
these recommendations multiple times. The U.S. Coast Guard, which
regulates these crafts, has recently concurred with quite a number of
these recommendations. Yet, to be frank, we need more than
recommendations. We need more than studies and surveys. We need laws.
It has been 875 days, and we have seen investigation after
investigation conclude the same thing: that lives could have been saved
if action had been taken--if this body had acted, if the security
measures had been put in place.
The time for delay has passed, and the time to act is now in order to
save future lives and to make sure that the tragedy that happened in
Branson is not repeated again in Missouri or in any other State.
My legislation would take those recommendations and put them into
law. It includes provisions to ensure that duck boats remain buoyant
during flooding. It requires dangerous canopies to be removed. It
requires life jackets for passengers. My legislation would also ensure
that duck boats would not go out during severe weather and also require
the operators of duck boats to know what the weather is--a commonsense
provision but one not currently required under the law.
I thank Senator Blunt, Senator Cotton, and Senator Duckworth for
supporting this legislation and for their strong support for lifesaving
provisions. I thank Chairman Wicker for moving this bill through the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where, once again,
it received unanimous support. Now it is time to make it the law of the
land.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further
consideration of S. 1031 and the Senate proceed to its immediate
consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 1031) to implement recommendations related to
the safety of amphibious passenger vessels, and for other
purposes.
There being no objection, the committee was discharged, and the
Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. HAWLEY. I ask unanimous consent that the Hawley substitute
amendment be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a
third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered
made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment (No. 2698) in the nature of a substitute was agreed to,
as follows
(Purpose: In the nature of a substitute)
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Duck Boat Safety Enhancement
Act of 2020''.
SEC. 2. SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR AMPHIBIOUS PASSENGER VESSELS.
(a) Safety Improvements.--
(1) Buoyancy requirements.--Not later than 1 year after the
date of completion of a Coast Guard contracted assessment by
the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
of the technical feasibility, practicality, and safety
benefits of providing reserve buoyancy through passive means
on amphibious passenger vessels, the Secretary of the
department in which the Coast Guard is operating may initiate
a rulemaking to prescribe in regulations that operators of
amphibious passenger vessels provide reserve buoyancy for
such vessels through passive means, including watertight
compartmentalization, built-in flotation, or such other means
as the Secretary may specify in the regulations, in order to
ensure that such vessels remain afloat and upright in the
event of flooding, including when carrying a full complement
of passengers and crew.
(2) Interim requirements.--Not later than 90 days after the
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the
department in which the Coast Guard is operating shall
initiate a rulemaking to implement interim safety policies or
other measures to require that operators of amphibious
passenger vessels operating in waters subject to the
jurisdiction of the United States, as defined in section 2.38
of title 33, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor
regulation) comply with the following:
(A) Remove the canopies of such vessels for waterborne
operations, or install in such vessels a canopy that does not
restrict either horizontal or vertical escape by passengers
in the event of flooding or sinking.
(B) If the canopy is removed from such vessel pursuant to
subparagraph (A), require that all passengers don a Coast
Guard type-approved personal flotation device before the
onset of waterborne operations of such vessel.
(C) Install in such vessels at least one independently
powered electric bilge pump that is capable of dewatering
such vessels at the volume of the largest remaining
penetration in order to supplement the vessel's existing
bilge pump required under section 182.520 of title 46, Code
of Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation).
(D) Verify the watertight integrity of such vessel in the
water at the outset of each waterborne departure of such
vessel.
(b) Regulations Required.--Not later than 2 years after the
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the
department in which the Coast Guard is operating shall
initiate a rulemaking for amphibious passenger vessels
operating in waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United
States, as defined in section 2.38 of title 33, Code of
Federal Regulations (or a successor regulation). The
regulations shall include, at a minimum, the following:
(1) Severe weather emergency preparedness.--Requirements
that an operator of an amphibious passenger vessel--
(A) check and notate in the vessel's logbook the National
Weather Service forecast before getting underway and
periodically while underway;
(B) in the case of a watch or warning issued for wind
speeds exceeding the wind speed equivalent used to certify
the stability of an amphibious passenger vessel, proceed to
the nearest harbor or safe refuge; and
(C) maintain and monitor a weather monitor radio receiver
at the operator station that may be automatically activated
by the warning alarm device of the National Weather Service.
(2) Passenger safety.--Requirements--
(A) concerning whether personal flotation devices should be
required for the duration of an amphibious passenger vessel's
waterborne transit, which shall be considered and determined
by the Secretary;
(B) that operators of amphibious passenger vessels inform
passengers that seat belts may not be worn during waterborne
operations;
(C) that before the commencement of waterborne operations,
a crew member visually check that each passenger has
unbuckled the passenger's seatbelt; and
(D) that operators or crew maintain a log recording the
actions described in subparagraphs (B) and (C).
(3) Training.--Requirement for annual training for
operators and crew of amphibious passengers vessels,
including--
(A) training for personal flotation and seat belt
requirements, verifying the integrity of the vessel at the
onset of each waterborne departure, identification of weather
hazards, and use of National Weather Service resources prior
to operation; and
(B) training for crewmembers to respond to emergency
situations, including flooding, engine compartment fires, man
overboard situations, and in water emergency egress
procedures.
(4) Recommendations from reports.--Requirements to address
recommendations from the following reports, as practicable
and to the extent that such recommendations are under the
jurisdiction of the Coast Guard:
(A) The National Transportation Safety Board's Safety
Recommendation Reports on the Amphibious Passenger Vessel
incidents
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in Table Rock, Missouri, Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Seattle,
Washington.
(B) The Coast Guard's Marine Investigation Board reports on
the Stretch Duck 7 sinkings at Table Rock, Missouri, and the
Miss Majestic sinking near Hot Springs, Arkansas.
(5) Interim requirements.--The interim requirements
described in subsection (a)(2), as appropriate.
(c) Prohibition on Operation of Noncompliant Vessels.--
Commencing as of the date specified by the Secretary of the
department in which the Coast Guard is operating pursuant to
subsection (d), any amphibious passenger vessel whose
configuration or operation does not comply with the
requirements under subsection (a)(2) (or subsection (a)(1),
if prescribed) may not operate in waters subject to the
jurisdiction of the United States, as defined in section 2.38
of title 33, Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor
regulation).
(d) Deadline for Compliance.--The regulations and interim
requirements described in subsections (a) and (b) shall
require compliance with the requirements in the regulations
not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of
this Act, as the Secretary of the department in which the
Coast Guard is operating may specify in the regulations.
(e) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the promulgation
of the regulations required under subsection (a), the
Commandant of the Coast Guard shall provide a report to the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the
Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
of the House of Representatives regarding the status of the
implementation of the requirements included in such
regulations.
The bill (S. 1031), as amended, was ordered to be engrossed for a
third reading, was read the third time, and passed.
Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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