Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1993

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Authorizations

Title II: Personnel Management Improvement

Title III: Navigation Safety and Waterway Service Management

Title IV: Engineering and Development Amendments

Title V: Research

Title VI: Passenger Vessel Safety

Title VII: Miscellaneous Provisions

Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1993 - Title I: Authorizations - Authorizes appropriations for the Coast Guard for: (1) operation and maintenance; (2) acquisition, construction, rebuilding, and improvement of aids to navigation, shore and offshore facilities, vessels, and aircraft; (3) research, development, test, and evaluation; (4) retirement pay and benefits; (5) alteration or removal of bridges; and (6) environmental compliance and restoration.

(Sec. 102) Authorizes the Coast Guard end-of-year strength for active duty personnel and the average military training student loads.

Title II: Personnel Management Improvement - Eliminates the ceiling on the number of active duty commissioned officers in the Coast Guard.

(Sec. 202) Authorizes the President to appoint, with the advice and consent of the Senate, a Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard to rank next after area commanders and have the rank of vice admiral. Removes a requirement that the rear admiral serving as Chief of Staff be the senior rear admiral for all purposes other than pay.

(Sec. 203) Requires that officers serving in the grade of admiral and rear admiral (including the Commandant, Vice Commandant, and Area Commanders) continue to hold that grade while being processed for physical disability retirement and while awaiting retirement. Replaces, in retirement provisions, references to the Commanders of the Atlantic and Pacific Areas with references to vice admirals. Removes references to the Chief of Staff from provisions relating to continuation on active duty and involuntary retirement of rear admirals and rear admirals (lower half).

(Sec. 204) Authorizes: (1) the acceptance of voluntary services for the maintenance and improvement of natural and historic resources, or to benefit natural and historic research, on Coast Guard facilities; and (2) convening a retention board concerning Reserve officers who have 18 years or more of service.

Title III: Navigation Safety and Waterway Service Management - (Sec. 301) Repeals provisions of the Act of June 25, 1936, requiring: (1) public notice of North Atlantic Ocean passenger vessel routes, adherence to the routes, and avoidance of fishing and ice regions; and (2) publication in the Federal Register of rules and regulations promulgated under provisions relating to ice and derelicts.

(Sec. 302) Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to prohibit inclusion of amounts previously appropriated from the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund to carry out provisions of Federal law relating to allocations for State recreational boating safety programs, but not distributed, when calculating whether the Boat Safety Account exceeds certain IRC limits.

(Sec. 303) Amends Federal law to declare that a seagoing barge is not subject to inspection under specified provisions if the barge is unmanned and does not carry oil in bulk or a reportable or harmful quantity of a hazardous material.

Title IV: Engineering and Development Amendments - Authorizes: (1) acquisition of real property for use as Coast Guard family housing units and disposal of any such property; and (2) improvement of buildings at Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

(Sec. 403) Grants the Coast Guard long-term lease authority for aids-to-navigation sites, vessel traffic service sensor sites, or National Distress System high level antenna sites.

Title V: Research - Authorizes: (1) the Coast Guard to compete for and accept Federal, State, or other educational research grants, provided that no award is accepted for the acquisition or construction of facilities, or for the routine functions of the Academy; and (2) the Commandant to enter into cooperative agreements with other Government agencies for purposes of contracting with the National Academy of Sciences.

Title VI: Passenger Vessel Safety - Passenger Vessel Safety Act of 1993 - Amends Federal shipping law relating to vessels and seamen to: (1) modify the definitions of "passenger," "passenger vessel," "small passenger vessel," "uninspected passenger vessel," "offshore supply vessel," and "sailing school vessel"; and (2) define "passenger for hire," "consideration," and "submersible vessel."

(Sec. 611) Authorizes the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating (Secretary) to exempt excursion vessels and oceanographic research vessels from requirements of provisions relating to inspection and regulation of vessels, load lines of vessels, manning of vessels, and merchant seamen protection and relief.

(Sec. 612) Directs the Secretary to require additional equipment or establish construction standards or additional operating standards for uninspected passenger vessels.

(Sec. 613) Directs the Secretary to extend for up to 30 additional months or until issuance of a certificate of inspection, whichever occurs first, the period of inapplicability with respect to revise regulations governing passenger vessels chartered with no crew, provided the owner of the vessel concerned meets specified requirements, including applying for inspection, correcting hazardous conditions, and developing a work plan approved by the Coast Guard to complete all requirements necessary for issuance of a certificate of inspection as soon as possible. Requires the owner receiving such an extension to operate the vessel under certain conditions prescribed by the Coast Guard.

(Sec. 614) Authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to issue a certificate of documentation with appropriate endorsement for employment in the coastwise trade of the United States for the vessel Liseron. Directs the Secretary to deem such vessel to measure less than 100 gross tons (and, thus, allow the Coast Guard to inspect the vessel under the regulations for small passenger vessels) if the vessel does not undergo a major conversion subsequent to this Act's enactment and does not carry passengers on an international voyage.

Title VII: Miscellaneous Provisions - Directs the Secretary to convey the Heron Neck Lighthouse to the Island Institute, Rockland, Maine, provided that the lighthouse is used for educational, historic, recreational, and cultural programs open to and for the benefit of the general public.

(Sec. 702) Directs the Coast Guard to complete the planning and design studies outlined in its strategy document to relocate the Cape Cod Lighthouse, located in North Truro, Massachusetts. Authorizes appropriations to complete such studies.

(Sec. 703) Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) convey one or more of the Cape Disappointment, North Head, and Point Wilson Lighthouses to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission; and (2) expend specified sums for the lower Columbia River marine, fire, oil, and toxic spill response communications, training, equipment, and program administration activities conducted by the Marine Fire and Safety Association.

(Sec. 705) Directs the Coast Guard to establish the Southeastern Regional Fisheries Law Enforcement Training Center in the Seventh Coast Guard District in Charleston, South Carolina.

(Sec. 706) Extends the exemption in the Oceans Act of 1992 for certain fish tender vessels from requirements of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

(Sec. 707) Amends the Act of June 4, 1958, to change the dates of National Safe Boating Week to the week before Memorial Day weekend.

(Sec. 708) Amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) to authorize assessment of civil penalties for violation of Coast Guard promulgated regulations under the OCSLA. Makes it the Secretary's (currently, Secretary of the Interior's) responsibility to assess and collect the penalty. Provides the Coast Guard with immediate civil penalty assessment authority.

(Sec. 709) Allows an oil spill response vessel to have the same general manning requirements as offshore supply vessels (i.e., one licensed mate if the vessel is less than 200 gross tons and is engaged in a voyage of less than 600 miles).

(Sec. 710) Authorizes the Coast Guard to provide personnel support for the interim vessel traffic information service in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.