106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2412

AN ACT

To amend title 49, United States Code, to authorize appropriations for the National Transportation Safety Board

for fiscal years 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, and for

other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; REFERENCES.

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the

5 ‘‘National Transportation Safety Board Amendments Act

6 of 2000’’.
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1 (b) REFERENCES.—Except as otherwise specifically

2 provided, whenever in this Act an amendment or repeal

3 is expressed in terms of an amendment to, or repeal of,

4 a section or other provision of law, the reference shall be

5 considered to be made to a section or other provision of

6 title 49, United States Code.

7 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

8 Section 1101 is amended to read as follows:

9 ‘‘§ 1101. Definitions

10 ‘‘Section 2101(17a) of title 46 and section 40102(a)

11 of this title apply to this chapter. In this chapter, the term

12 ‘accident’ includes damage to or destruction of vehicles in

13 surface or air transportation or pipelines, regardless of

14 whether the initiating event is accidental or otherwise.’’.

15 SEC. 3. AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO AGREEMENTS.

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1113(b)(1)(I) is amended

17 to read as follows:

18 ‘‘(I) negotiate and enter into agreements

19 with individuals and private entities and depart20 ments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the

21 Government, State and local governments, and

22 governments of foreign countries for the provi23 sion of facilities, accident-related and technical

24 services or training in accident investigation

25 theory and techniques, and require that such
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1 entities provide appropriate consideration for

2 the reasonable costs of any facilities, goods,

3 services, or training provided by the Board.’’.

4 (b) DEPOSIT OF AMOUNTS.—

5 (1) Section 1113(b)(2) is amended—

6 (A) by inserting ‘‘as offsetting collections’’

7 after ‘‘to be credited’’; and

8 (B) by adding after ‘‘Board.’’ the fol9 lowing: ‘‘The Board shall maintain an annual

10 record of collections received under paragraph

11 (1)(I) of this subsection.’’.

12 (2) Section 1114(a) is amended—

13 (A) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ before ‘‘Except’’;

14 and

15 (B) by adding at the end thereof the fol16 lowing:

17 ‘‘(2) The Board shall deposit in the Treasury

18 amounts received under paragraph (1) to be credited

19 to the appropriation of the Board as offsetting col20 lections.’’.

21 (3) Section 1115(d) is amended by striking ‘‘of

22 the ‘National Transportation Safety Board, Salaries

23 and Expenses’ ’’ and inserting ‘‘of the Board’’.
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1 SEC. 4. OVERTIME PAY.

2 Section 1113 is amended by adding at the end the

3 following:

4 ‘‘(g) OVERTIME PAY.—

5 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the require6 ments of this section and notwithstanding para7 graphs (1) and (2) of section 5542(a) of title 5, for

8 an employee of the Board whose basic pay is at a

9 rate which equals or exceeds the minimum rate of

10 basic pay for GS–10 of the General Schedule, the

11 Board may establish an overtime hourly rate of pay

12 for the employee with respect to work performed at

13 the scene of an accident (including travel to or from

14 the scene) and other work that is critical to an acci15 dent investigation in an amount equal to one and

16 one-half times the hourly rate of basic pay of the

17 employee. All of such amount shall be considered to

18 be premium pay.

19 ‘‘(2) LIMITATION ON OVERTIME PAY TO AN EM20 PLOYEE.—An employee of the Board may not re21 ceive overtime pay under paragraph (1), for work

22 performed in a calendar year, in an amount that ex23 ceeds 15 percent of the annual rate of basic pay of

24 the employee for such calendar year.

25 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON TOTAL AMOUNT OF OVER26 TIME PAY.—The Board may not make overtime pay-
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1 ments under paragraph (1) for work performed in

2 any fiscal year in a total amount that exceeds 1.5

3 percent of the amount appropriated to carry out this

4 chapter for that fiscal year.

5 ‘‘(4) BASIC PAY DEFINED.—In this subsection,

6 the term ‘basic pay’ includes any applicable locality7 based comparability payment under section 5304 of

8 title 5 (or similar provision of law) and any special

9 rate of pay under section 5305 of title 5 (or similar

10 provision of law).

11 ‘‘(5) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than Janu12 ary 31, 2002, and annually thereafter, the Board

13 shall transmit to the Senate Committee on Com14 merce, Science, and Transportation and the House

15 Transportation and Infrastructure Committee a re16 port identifying the total amount of overtime pay17 ments made under this subsection in the preceding

18 fiscal year, and the number of employees whose

19 overtime pay under this subsection was limited in

20 that fiscal year as a result of the 15 percent limit

21 established by paragraph (2).’’.

22 SEC. 5. RECORDERS.

23 (a) COCKPIT VIDEO RECORDINGS.—Section 1114(c)

24 is amended—
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1 (1) by striking ‘‘VOICE’’ in the subsection head2 ing;

3 (2) by striking ‘‘cockpit voice recorder’’ in para4 graphs (1) and (2) and inserting ‘‘cockpit voice or

5 video recorder’’; and

6 (3) by inserting ‘‘or any written depiction of

7 visual information’’ after ‘‘transcript’’ in the second

8 sentence of paragraph (1).

9 (b) SURFACE VEHICLE RECORDINGS AND TRAN10 SCRIPTS.—

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1114 is amended—

12 (A) by redesignating subsections (d) and

13 (e) as subsections (e) and (f), respectively; and

14 (B) by inserting after subsection (e) the

15 following:

16 ‘‘(d) SURFACE VEHICLE RECORDINGS AND TRAN17 SCRIPTS.—

18 ‘‘(1) CONFIDENTIALITY OF RECORDINGS.—The

19 Board may not disclose publicly any part of a sur20 face vehicle voice or video recorder recording or

21 transcript of oral communications by or among driv22 ers, train employees, or other operating employees

23 responsible for the movement and direction of the

24 vehicle or vessel, or between such operating employ25 ees and company communication centers, related to
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1 an accident investigated by the Board. However, the

2 Board shall make public any part of a transcript or

3 any written depiction of visual information that the

4 Board decides is relevant to the accident—

5 ‘‘(A) if the Board holds a public hearing

6 on the accident, at the time of the hearing; or

7 ‘‘(B) if the Board does not hold a public

8 hearing, at the time a majority of the other fac9 tual reports on the accident are placed in the

10 public docket.

11 ‘‘(2) REFERENCES TO INFORMATION IN MAKING

12 SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS.—This subsection does

13 not prevent the Board from referring at any time to

14 voice or video recorder information in making safety

15 recommendations.’’.

16 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The first sen17 tence of section 1114(a) is amended by striking

18 ‘‘and (e)’’ and inserting ‘‘(d), and (f)’’.

19 (c) DISCOVERY AND USE OF COCKPIT AND SURFACE

20 VEHICLE RECORDINGS AND TRANSCRIPTS.—

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1154 is amended—

22 (A) by striking the section heading and in23 serting the following:
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1 ‘‘§ 1154. Discovery and use of cockpit and surface ve2 hicle recordings and transcripts;

3 (B) by striking ‘‘cockpit voice recorder’’

4 each place it appears in subsection (a) and in5 serting ‘‘cockpit or surface vehicle recorder’’;

6 (C) by striking ‘‘section 1114(c)’’ each

7 place it appears in subsection (a) and inserting

8 ‘‘section 1114(c) or 1114(d)’’; and

9 (D) by adding at the end the following:

10 ‘‘(6) In this subsection:

11 ‘‘(A) RECORDER.—The term ‘recorder’

12 means a voice or video recorder.

13 ‘‘(B) TRANSCRIPT.—The term ‘transcript’

14 includes any written depiction of visual infor15 mation obtained from a video recorder.’’.

16 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The chapter

17 analysis for chapter 11 is amended by striking the

18 item relating to section 1154 and inserting the fol19 lowing:

‘‘1154. Discovery and use of cockpit and surface vehicle recordings and transcripts.’’.

20 SEC. 6. PRIORITY OF INVESTIGATIONS.

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1131(a)(2) is amended—

22 (1) by striking ‘‘(2) An investigation’’ and in23 serting:
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1 ‘‘(2)(A) Subject to the requirements of this

2 paragraph, an investigation’’; and

3 (2) by adding at the end the following:

4 ‘‘(B) If the Attorney General, in consulta5 tion with the Chairman of the Board, deter6 mines and notifies the Board that cir7 cumstances reasonably indicate that the acci8 dent may have been caused by an intentional

9 criminal act, the Board shall relinquish inves10 tigative priority to the Federal Bureau of Inves11 tigation. The relinquishment of investigative

12 priority by the Board shall not otherwise affect

13 the authority of the Board to continue its inves14 tigation under this section.

15 ‘‘(C) If a Federal law enforcement agency

16 suspects and notifies the Board that an acci17 dent being investigated by the Board under

18 subparagraph (A), (B), (C), or (D) of para19 graph (1) may have been caused by an inten20 tional criminal act, the Board, in consultation

21 with the law enforcement agency, shall take

22 necessary actions to ensure that evidence of the

23 criminal act is preserved.’’.

24 (b) REVISION OF 1977 AGREEMENT.—Not later than

25 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
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1 National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal

2 Bureau of Investigation shall revise their 1977 agreement

3 on the investigation of accidents to take into account the

4 amendments made by this Act.

5 SEC. 7. PUBLIC AIRCRAFT INVESTIGATION CLARIFICATION.

6 Section 1131(d) is amended by striking ‘‘1134(b)(2)’’

7 and inserting ‘‘1134 (a), (b), (d), and (f)’’.

8 SEC. 8. MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.

9 Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment

10 of this Act, the National Transportation Safety Board and

11 the United States Coast Guard shall revise their Memo12 randum of Understanding governing major marine

13 accidents—

14 (1) to redefine or clarify the standards used to

15 determine when the National Transportation Safety

16 Board will lead an investigation; and

17 (2) to develop new standards to determine when

18 a major marine accident involves significant safety

19 issues relating to Coast Guard safety functions.

20 SEC. 9. TRAVEL BUDGETS.

21 The Chairman of the National Transportation Safety

22 Board shall establish annual fiscal year budgets for non23 accident-related travel expenditures for Board members

24 which shall be approved by the Board and submitted to

25 the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans-
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1 portation and to the House of Representatives Committee

2 on Transportation and Infrastructure together with an an3 nual report detailing the non-accident-related travel of

4 each Board member. The report shall include separate ac5 counting for foreign and domestic travel, including any

6 personnel or other expenses associated with that travel.

7 SEC. 10. CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER.

8 Section 1111 is amended—

9 (1) by redesignating subsection (h) as sub10 section (i); and

11 (2) by inserting after subsection (g) the fol12 lowing:

13 ‘‘(h) CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER.—The Chairman

14 shall designate an officer or employee of the Board as the

15 Chief Financial Officer. The Chief Financial Officer

16 shall—

17 ‘‘(1) report directly to the Chairman on finan18 cial management and budget execution;

19 ‘‘(2) direct, manage, and provide policy guid20 ance and oversight on financial management and

21 property and inventory control; and

22 ‘‘(3) review the fees, rents, and other charges

23 imposed by the Board for services and things of

24 value it provides, and suggest appropriate revisions

25 to those charges to reflect costs incurred by the
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1 Board in providing those services and things of

2 value.’’.

3 SEC. 11. IMPROVED AUDIT PROCEDURES.

4 The National Transportation Safety Board, in con5 sultation with the Inspector General of the Department

6 of Transportation, shall develop and implement com7 prehensive internal audit controls for its financial pro8 grams based on the findings and recommendations of the

9 private sector audit firm contract entered into by the

10 Board in March, 2000. The improved internal audit con11 trols shall, at a minimum, address Board asset manage12 ment systems, including systems for accounting manage13 ment, debt collection, travel, and property and inventory

14 management and control.

15 SEC. 12. AUTHORITY OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL.

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 11 of

17 subtitle II is amended by adding at the end the following:

18 ‘‘§ 1137. Authority of the Inspector General

19 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Inspector General of the

20 Department of Transportation, in accordance with the

21 mission of the Inspector General to prevent and detect

22 fraud and abuse, shall have authority to review only the

23 financial management, property management, and busi24 ness operations of the National Transportation Safety

25 Board, including internal accounting and administrative
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1 control systems, to determine compliance with applicable

2 Federal laws, rules, and regulations.

3 ‘‘(b) DUTIES.—In carrying out this section, the In4 spector General shall—

5 ‘‘(1) keep the Chairman of the Board and Con6 gress fully and currently informed about problems

7 relating to administration of the internal accounting

8 and administrative control systems of the Board;

9 ‘‘(2) issue findings and recommendations for

10 actions to address such problems; and

11 ‘‘(3) report periodically to Congress on any

12 progress made in implementing actions to address

13 such problems.

14 ‘‘(c) ACCESS TO INFORMATION.—In carrying out this

15 section, the Inspector General may exercise authorities

16 granted to the Inspector General under subsections (a)

17 and (b) of section 6 of the Inspector General Act of 1978

18 (5 U.S.C. App.).

19 ‘‘(d) REIMBURSEMENT.—The Inspector General shall

20 be reimbursed by the Board for the costs associated with

21 carrying out activities under this section.’’.

22 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The subchapter

23 analysis for such subchapter is amended by adding at the

24 end the following:

‘‘1137. Authority of the Inspector General.’’.
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1 SEC. 13. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

2 Section 1118 is amended to read as follows:

3 ‘‘§ 1118. Authorization of appropriations

4 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be ap5 propriated for the purposes of this chapter $57,000,000

6 for fiscal year 2000, $65,000,000 for fiscal year 2001, and

7 $72,000,000 for fiscal year 2002, such sums to remain

8 available until expended.

9 ‘‘(b) EMERGENCY FUND.—The Board has an emer10 gency fund of $2,000,000 available for necessary expenses

11 of the Board, not otherwise provided for, for accident in12 vestigations. Amounts equal to the amounts expended an13 nually out of the fund are authorized to be appropriated

14 to the emergency fund.’’.

15 SEC. 14. CREDITING OF LAW ENFORCEMENT FLIGHT TIME.

16 In determining whether an individual meets the aero17 nautical experience requirements imposed under section

18 44703 of title 49, United States Code, for an airman cer19 tificate or rating, the Secretary of Transportation shall

20 take into account any time spent by that individual oper21 ating a public aircraft as defined in section 40102 of title

22 49, United States Code, if that aircraft is—

23 (1) identifiable by category and class; and

24 (2) used in law enforcement activities.
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1 SEC. 15. TECHNICAL CORRECTION.

2 Section 46301(d)(2) of title 49, United States Code,

3 is amended by striking ‘‘46302, 46303,’’ and inserting

4 ‘‘46301(b), 46302, 46303, 46318,’’.

5 SEC. 16. CONFIRMATION OF INTERIM FINAL RULE

6 ISSUANCE UNDER SECTION 45301.

7 The publication, by the Department of Transpor8 tation, Federal Aviation Administration, in the Federal

9 Register of June 6, 2000 (65 FR 36002) of an interim

10 final rule concerning Fees for FAA Services for Certain

11 Flights (Docket No. FAA–00–7018) is deemed to have

12 been issued in accordance with the requirements of section

13 45301(b)(2) of title 49, United States Code.

14 SEC. 17. AERONAUTICAL CHARTING.

15 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 44721 of title 49, United

16 States Code, is amended—

17 (1) by striking paragraphs (3) and (4) of sub18 section (c); and

19 (2) by adding at the end of subsection (g)(1)

20 the following:

21 ‘‘(D) CONTINUATION OF PRICES.—The

22 price of any product created under subsection

23 (d) may correspond to the price of a com24 parable product produced by a department of

25 the United States Government as that price

26 was in effect on September 30, 2000, and may
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1 remain in effect until modified by regulation

2 under section 9701 of title 31, United States

3 Code.’’; and

4 (3) by adding at the end of subsection (g) the

5 following:

6 (5) CREDITING AMOUNTS RECEIVED.—Notwith7 standing any other provision of law, amounts re8 ceived for the sale of products created and services

9 performed under this section shall be fully credited

10 to the account of the Federal Aviation Administra11 tion that funded the provision of the products or

12 services and shall remain available until expended.

13 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by

14 subsection (a) take effect on October 1, 2000.

Passed the Senate October 3 (legislative day, September 22), 2000.

Attest:

Secretary.
106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2412

AN ACT

To amend title 49, United States Code, to authorize appropriations for the National Transportation Safety Board for fiscal years 2000, 2001,

2002, and 2003, and for other purposes.