[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 136 (Wednesday, July 16, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38184-38186]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-18664]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Coast Guard
[CGD 97-043]


Notice and Request for Comments Regarding Small Business 
Regulatory Enforcement Fair Act of 1996 Implementation

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard has implemented certain programs to comply 
with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. We 
developed these programs to help small entities understand and comply 
with statutes and our regulations. We are seeking comments about our 
programs from the public.

DATES: The programs went into effect on March 29, 1997. Comments must 
be received by September 15, 1997.

ADDRESSES: You may mail your comments to the Executive Secretary, 
Marine Safety Council (G-LRA/3406)) (SBREFA Comments), U.S. Coast Guard 
Headquarters, 2100 Second Street SW, Washington, DC 20593-0001, or 
deliver them to room 3406 at the same address between 9:30 a.m. and 2 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is (202) 267-1477.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ms. Christine Meers, Marine Safety and Environmental Protection (G-MSR) 
at (202) 267-6819; or Ms. Brenda Beasley, Operations (G-0-1) at (202) 
267-0825.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement 
Fairness Act (``SBREFA''), Public Law 104-121, 110 Stat. 847, was 
enacted on March 29, 1996. Sections 213 and 223 of SBREFA require 
agencies to establish specific policies or programs to assist small 
entities. Small entities include small businesses, nonprofit 
organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions.
    Section 213 requires each covered agency to establish a program to 
answer inquiries concerning information and advice about compliance 
with statutes and regulations within the agency's jurisdiction. The 
agency must use information received during these inquiries to help 
small entities interpret and apply the regulations to specific facts.
    Section 223 requires each covered agency to establish a policy or 
program to reduce or waive civil penalties when a small entity violates 
a statute or regulation. Under appropriate circumstances, an agency may 
consider ability to pay when it assesses a penalty against a small 
entity.

Informal Small Entity Guidance

    To help small entities understand their obligations under the 
regulations administered by the Coast Guard, we provide both general 
guidance and individualized advice. We are available to assist small 
entities at our headquarters location in Washington, DC. and at our 
field offices located in port cities around the nation.
    When we issue or propose new regulations, we identify a point of 
contract within the text of each rule who will provide small business 
advice. Depending on the nature of the rule, that person may be a 
Headquarters project officer, a subject matter expert at the Coast 
Guard's National Maritime Center, or a Coast Guard official assigned to 
a local port. This contact person is available, by phone, fax, or e-
mail, to help small entities understand the rule so they can better 
evaluate its effects on them and participate in the rulemaking process.
    In those instances where we hold public meetings to solicit views 
from the public regarding proposed or anticipated rules, we plan to 
develop a

[[Page 38185]]

standardized list of small business-related questions to be used during 
those meetings. This will ensure that small business concerns are 
addressed at the earliest stage of the regulatory process.
    For complex rules, we have expanded our use of Navigation and 
Vessel Inspection Circulars (NVICs). NVICs are technical publications 
that answer questions about maritime safety. NVICs now provide guidance 
to help small entities comply with our regulations and apply them to 
particular fact situations. For less complicated rules, we plan to 
develop check sheets to help small entities comply with our rules and 
understand them.
    We also provide assistance to small entities through the Internet. 
The Coast Guard home page is at http://www.dot.gov/dotinfo/uscg/
welcome.html. The Assistant Commandant for Marine Safety and 
Environmental Protection has established a ``small business regulatory 
assistance'' web page. It contains links to regulations that may apply 
to small businesses and the addresses and telephone numbers of Coast 
Guard marine safety offices, worldwide. This web page is found at 
www.dot.gov/dotinfo/uscg/hq/g-m/smallbus/index.htm. Additionally, the 
Assistant Commandant for Operations plans to provide information and 
articles useful to small entities on its world wide web pages.
    The Assistant Commandant for Marine Safety and Environmental 
Protection will add a ``small business'' section to the Coast Guard's 
Marine Safety Newsletter, to inform the small business community about 
substantive issues and identify points of contact from whom small 
entities may seek assistance. The Newsletter is available on-line at 
http://www.dot.gov/dotinfo/uscg/hq/g-m/gmhome.htm. For mail 
subscriptions, send requests to: Marine Safety Newsletter Editor, 
National Maritime Center, 4200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 510, Arlington, VA 
22203-1804.
    Additionally, small entities can download regulations, forms, and 
documentation from our web pages. If a small entity does not have 
access to a computer, we will mail this information on request. Send 
requests to: U.S. Coast Guard (G-MSR) 2100 Second Street SW, 
Washington, DC 20593.
    The Assistant Commandant for Operations plans to publish articles 
of interest to small entities in Boating Safety Circulars. We mail 
Boating Safety Circulars to the recreational boating industry and 
community.
    We have also expanded our toll-free customer service Infoline (1-
800-368-5647) to include compliance advice for small entities. We have 
trained the Infoline staff to identify phone and fax inquiries from 
small entities. We plan to develop sheets of frequently asked questions 
(FAQ) to help our staff refer inquiries to the appropriate subject 
matter expert who can discuss specific requirements that may apply to a 
small entity and explain how to comply.
    To ensure that we evaluate and update our small entity assistance 
program periodically, we will work with the Office of Intergovernmental 
Affairs and the Small Business Administration on a regular basis to 
identify small business concerns in the maritime community.
    To monitor the success of the program, we will sample all field 
activities (such as inspections, fees, licensing) to obtain an estimate 
of the number of interactions with small businesses. We will report 
annually on our performance and accomplishments. To keep track of phone 
calls, faxes, and mailings, we will log and categorize them.

Rights of Small Entities in Enforcement Actions

    Section 223 of SBREFA requires agencies that regulate the 
activities of small entities to establish a policy or program to reduce 
or, under appropriate circumstances, waive civil penalties when a small 
entity violates a statute or regulation.
    Section 223 requires an agency's policy or program to contain 
conditions or exclusions, which may include: Requiring small entities 
to correct the violation within a reasonable correction period; 
applying the policy or program only if violations are discovered when 
small entities participate in a compliance assistance or audit program; 
excluding small entities that have been subject to multiple enforcement 
actions by the agency; excluding violations involving willful or 
criminal conduct or that pose serious health, safety, or environmental 
threats; or, requiring a good-faith effort to comply with the law.
    Federal statutes and regulations authorize the Coast Guard to 
impose civil penalties in conjunction with maritime regulatory and 
enforcement issues. Several statutes (49 U.S.C. 336, 46 U.S.C. 2107, 
and 33 U.S.C. 1321(b)(8) require that penalty assessments be tailored 
to the facts of the case, including the violator's ability to pay.
    The Coast Guard has adopted a ``user friendly'' approach to achieve 
compliance in certain situations where the violator has shown a good 
faith effort to comply with the regulations. Coast Guard hearing 
officers take into account the size of the business to determine 
whether a partial or full waiver of the penalty is appropriate in a 
particular case. Large, profitable businesses with adequate financial 
resources and personnel are expected to have better compliance records 
than smaller businesses or individuals with less resources.
    Additionally, in 1995, the Coast Guard instituted a policy to waive 
certain civil monetary penalties for violators who use the penalty 
amount to correct deficiencies and comply with our regulations. We 
instituted this policy in response to a Presidential Memorandum 
directed at small business assistance. However, we applied the policy 
across the board because the Memorandum did not define ``small 
business,'' and it was difficult to identify small entities in the 
informal adjudicative process. Furthermore, we did not apply our waiver 
policy when the violation posed a significant threat to health, safety 
or the environment.
    To comply with SBREFA, we will provide additional guidance to our 
hearing officers to help them identify circumstances involving ``small 
entities'' and determine what type of violations will qualify and will 
not qualify for the program. We will expand our program to permit Coast 
Guard civil penalty hearing officers to solicit information from the 
violator in the early part of the enforcement stage. By asking the 
right questions, our hearing officers can identify small entities and 
then determine whether the Coast Guard should waive or reduce the 
penalty.
    Before hearing officers apply our waiver program, they must hear 
evidence from the violator to confirm that they corrected the 
violation, and that the violation did not pose a significant threat to 
health, safety, or the environment. Violators must also substantiate 
the cost of the correction. If we reduce or waive the penalty, we 
advise the violator that the violation has still occurred and that we 
may consider it when assessing future penalties.

Coast Guard Offices

    To help you find us, here is a list of our Offices. Please contact 
the Office closest to you:

Headquarters

    Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, 2100 Second Street, SW, Washington, 
DC 20593, General Information Telephone: 202-267-2229
    Address the following to Commanding Officer, U.S. Coast Guard, 
Marine Safety Office:

--Boston: 405 Commercial, Boston, MA 02110

[[Page 38186]]

--Portland, ME: PO Box 108, 312 Fore St. Portland, ME 04112
--Providence: 20 Risho Ave. East Providence, RI 02914
--New York: USCG Activities NY, Bldg. 108, Governors Island, New York, 
NY 10004
--Long Island Sound: Group/MSO Long Island Sound, 120 Woodward Ave, New 
Haven, CT 06512
--Philadelphia: 1 Washington Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19147
--Hampton Roads: 200 Granby St., Norfork, VA 23510
--Baltimore: 2401 Hawkins Point Rd., Baltimore, MD 21226
--Wilmington: Suite 500, 272 Front St., Wilmington, NC 28401
--Miami: PO Box 01-6940, Miami, FL 33101
--Charleston: 196 Tradd St., Charleston, SC 29401
--Jacksonville: 7820 Arlington Expy, Jacksonville, FL 32211
--San Juan: PO Box 9023666, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00902
--Savannah: 222 W. Oglethorpe Ave., Suite 402, Savannah, GA 31401
--Tampa: 155 Columbia Dr. Tampa, FL 33606
--Mobile: PO Box 2924, Mobile, AL 36652
--New Orleans: 1615 Poydras Street, New Orleans, LA 70112
--Morgan City: 800 David Dr., Morgan City, LA 70380
--Port Arthur: 2875 Jimmy Johnson Blvd., Port Arthur, TX 77640
--Houston-Galveston: PO Box 446 Galena Park, TX 77547
--Corpus Christi: 400 Mann Street, Suite 210, Corpus, Christi, TX 77540
--St. Louis: 1222 Spruce St., Suite 8104E, St. Louis, MO 63103
--Paducah: 225 Tully St., Paducah, KY 42003
--Huntington: 1415 6th Ave., Huntington, WV 25701
--Louisville: 600 Martin Luther King Jr. Place, Louisville, KY 40202
--Memphis: 200 Jefferson Ave., Suite 1301, Memphis, TN 38103
--Pittsburgh: Kossman Bldg., Suite 1150, 100 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, 
PA 15222
--Cleveland: 1055 E. 9th St., Cleveland, OH 44114
--Buffalo: 1 Fuhrman Blvd., Buffalo, NY 14203
--Chicago: 215 W. 83rd St., Suite D, Burr Ridge, IL 60521
--Detroit: 110 Mt. Elliot Ave., Detroit, MI 48207
--Duluth: 600 S. Lake Ave., Canal Park, Duluth, MN 55902
--Milwaukee: 2420 S. Lincoln Memorial Dr., Milwaukee, WI 53207
--Sault. Ste. Marie: 337 Water St., Sault. St. Marie, MI 49783
--Toledo: Federal Bldg., Rm. 501, 234 Summit St., Toledo, OH 43604
--Los Angeles-Long Beach: 165 N. Pico Ave., Long Beach, CA 90802
--San Diego: 2716 N. Harbor Dr. San Diego, CA 92101
--San Francisco: Bldg. 14 Coast Guard Island, Alameda, CA 94501
--Puget Sound: Bldg. 1/ Pier 36, Seattle, WA 98134
--Portland, OR: 6767 N. Basin Ave., Portland, OR 97217
--Honolulu, HI: Room 1, 433 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu, HI 96813
--Guam: PSC 455, Box 176, FPO AP, 96540
--Juneau: Suite 2A, 2760 Sherwood La., Juneau, AK 99801
--Anchorage: 510 L St., Suite 100, Anchorage, AK 99501
--Valdez: P.O. Box 486, 105 South Clifton, Valdez, AK 99686

Request for Comments

    We invite members of the public to comment on any issues or 
concerns that they believe are relevant or appropriate to our small 
entity programs. If you rely on factual data to support your comment, 
please submit that data with your comment. If we decide to revise our 
programs after considering all of the comments, we will publish our 
revisions in a Federal Register notice.

    Authority: Sec. 213 and 223, Pub. L. 104-121, 110 Stat. 847.

    Dated: July 9, 1997.
Paul M. Blayney,
Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Chief Counsel.
[FR Doc. 97-18664 Filed 7-15-97; 8:45 am]
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