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Conference Report on H.R. 889, Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006

Date: June 27, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Transportation


CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 889, COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION ACT OF 2006

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this conference report.

It was my pleasure to serve as a conferee on the Fiscal Year 2006 Coast Guard authorization bill.

I am a strong supporter of the Coast Guard men and women who valiantly serve our nation.

Through their hard work and dedication, 33,000 people were saved in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

This will not be the last time that we will turn to the Coast Guard for help.

Congress must provide the Coast Guard with the support it needs to perform its security and life-saving missions.

The Coast Guard's current assets are deteriorating quickly, and the Administration has clearly failed to realize that there is a problem.

The Administration's request for the Deepwater program, which will provide the Coast Guard with more modern equipment, was $32 million less than last year.

Congress, recognizing the problem, authorized funds in this bill that will help accelerate the purchasing of Deepwater assets.

I had hoped that even more funds would be authorized for the Deepwater program. In the Homeland Security Committee's mark-up of H.R. 4954, the SAFE Ports Act, I supported an amendment offered by Rep. Donna Christensen (D-VI) that would have provided enough funds to complete the Deepwater program in ten years rather than the current twenty years. I wish that provision had been accepted in this bill.

Nonetheless, the funding level in this bill is a good first step.

Finally, this bill establishes a review process before an Administrative Law Judge for individuals denied a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).

TWIC cards will be required for all port workers.

If a person is denied a TWIC, he or she will not able to work.

Therefore, it is critically important that a neutral party be involved in deciding whether or not an individual should be denied this card.

Every person deserves the opportunity to work and the government cannot arbitrarily inhibit this right.

I thank the other conferees on both sides of the aisle for working with me on this conference report, and I recommend my colleagues support it.

http://thomas.loc.gov

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