HR 4005 Reported in House – CG Authorization

Earlier this week the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee published their report on HR 4005, Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014.

Chemical Safety and Security

The Committee did not make any changes to the bill during its markup that had anything to do with chemical safety or the Coast Guard’s Maritime Transportation Safety Act (MTSA) during the markup of this bill last month.  

The only provision in the bill dealing, even tangentially, chemical safety and security is §202. This section deals with the Prevention and Response Workforce, the Coast Guard’s safety and security specialists, both enlisted and officer. The Committee Report describes this section this way:

“This section ensures servicemembers assigned to certain prevention and response jobs have opportunity for career advancement.”

Moving Forward

According to the Majority Leader’s web site HR 4005 will come to the House floor on Tuesday, April 1^st. It will be considered under suspension of the rules, so no amendments will be considered. The House leadership certainly expects this bill to pass with wide bipartisan support.

Since there is no Senate version of this bill, it will likely be considered in the Senate before the summer recess. It is remotely possible that there will be no Senate amendments.