[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.

                          ____________________