Update on MTSA Hearing

The House Transport Committee has provided some additional information on their web site concerning tomorrow’s hearing on the status of the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA). They have added a witness list and a briefing memo to their hearing page since I did my Congressional Hearing blog post on Saturday.

The currently scheduled witnesses are:

• Rear Admiral Joseph Servidio, Assistant Commandant for Preparedness, United States Coast Guard
• Mr. Stephen Caldwell, Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues, Government Accountability Office
• Ms. Beth Rooney, Manager of Port Security, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, testifying on behalf of American Association of Port Authorities
• Mr. Chris Koch, President & CEO, World Shipping Council

The web site also contains a link to the Staff Briefing Memo for this hearing. That memo summarizes the current state of the Coast Guards implementation of the MTSA legislation and supporting regulations. In addition it provides a brief summary of areas of that implementation that are currently incomplete or unsatisfactory based upon previous GAO reports. These areas include:

• TWIC;

• Foreign seafarer identification; and

• Foreign port assessments.

A new GAO report will almost certainly form the basis for the testimony of Stephen Caldwell.