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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2865 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2865

  To ensure safe, secure, and reliable marine shipping in the Arctic 
including the availability of aids to navigation, vessel escorts, spill 
response capability, and maritime search and rescue in the Arctic, and 
                          for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 12, 2009

 Mr. Young of Alaska introduced the following bill; which was referred 
         to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
  To ensure safe, secure, and reliable marine shipping in the Arctic 
including the availability of aids to navigation, vessel escorts, spill 
response capability, and maritime search and rescue in the Arctic, and 
                          for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 
Implementation Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds and declares the following:
            (1) The Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas are becoming 
        increasingly accessible to shipping, due to thinning ice cover, 
        technological improvements allowing greater efficiencies in the 
        operation of ice-breakers and ice-strengthened cargo and 
        passenger vessels, satellite support for navigation and real-
        time ice-charting, and growing demand for Arctic tourism and 
        natural resources.
            (2) It is in the interests of the United States to work 
        with the State of Alaska and our neighbors in the Arctic Region 
        to ensure that shipping in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas 
        is safe for mariners, protective of the natural environment, 
        including the air, land, water, and wildlife of the Arctic, and 
        mindful of the needs of longstanding subsistence users of 
        Arctic resources.
            (3) It is further in the interests of the United States to 
        ensure that shipping in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas is 
        secure, and that United States sovereign and security 
        interests, including the rights of United States vessels to 
        innocent passage through international straits, are respected 
        and protected, that access is provided throughout the Arctic 
        Ocean for legitimate research vessels of all nations, and that 
        peaceful relations are maintained in the Arctic region.
            (4) It is further in the interests of the United States to 
        see that a system of international cooperation is established 
        to support reliable shipping, with methods for joint investment 
        in providing mariners aids to navigation, ports of refuge, 
        vessel-to-shore communication, hydrographic mapping, and search 
        and rescue capability.
            (5) For nearly 500 years, mariners and sea-faring nations 
        have sought national and global benefits from sea routes in the 
        Arctic similar to those provided now by the Panama and Suez 
        canals, but as those benefits may finally be realized, expanded 
        shipping will present risks to residents of the Arctic, and 
        coordinated shipping regulations are needed to protect United 
        States interests even from shipping that may occur in the 
        Arctic region outside United States territorial waters.
            (6) Proven models for international cooperation in 
        management of regional waterways exist, including United States 
        joint administration of the St. Lawrence Seaway with Canada, 
        and existing cooperation between the Coast Guard and its 
        Russian Federation counterpart for fisheries enforcement in the 
        Bering Sea and North Pacific regions.
            (7) The United States has continuing research, security, 
        environmental, and commercial interests in the Arctic region 
        that rely on the availability of icebreaker platforms of the 
        Coast Guard. The Polar Class icebreakers commissioned in the 
        1970s are in need of replacement.
            (8) Sovereign interests of the United States in the Arctic 
        Ocean and Bering Sea regions may grow with submission of a 
        United States claim for an extended continental shelf.
            (9) Building new icebreakers, mustering international plans 
        for aids to navigation and other facilities, and establishing 
        coordinated shipping regulations and oil spill prevention and 
        response capability through international cooperation, 
        including the approval of the International Maritime 
        Organization, requires long lead times. Beginning those efforts 
        now, with the completion of an Arctic Marine Shipping 
        Assessment by the eight-nation Arctic Council, is essential to 
        protect United States interests given the extensive current use 
        of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas by vessels of many 
        nations.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to ensure safe, secure, 
and reliable maritime shipping in the Arctic including the availability 
of aids to navigation, vessel escorts, spill response capability, and 
maritime search and rescue in the Arctic.

SEC. 3. INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION AGREEMENTS.

    To carry out the purpose of this Act, the Secretary of the 
department in which the Coast Guard is operating shall work through the 
International Maritime Organization to establish agreements to promote 
coordinated action among the United States, Russia, Canada, Iceland, 
Norway, and Denmark and other seafaring and Arctic nations to ensure, 
in the Arctic--
            (1) placement and maintenance of aids to navigation;
            (2) appropriate icebreaking escort, tug, and salvage 
        capabilities;
            (3) oil spill prevention and response capability;
            (4) maritime domain awareness, including long-range vessel 
        tracking; and
            (5) search and rescue.

SEC. 4. COORDINATION BY COMMITTEE ON THE MARITIME TRANSPORTATION 
              SYSTEM.

    The Committee on the Maritime Transportation System established 
under a directive of the President in the Ocean Action Plan, issued 
December 17, 2004, shall coordinate the establishment of domestic 
transportation policies in the Arctic necessary to carry out the 
purpose of the Act.

SEC. 5. AGREEMENTS AND CONTRACTS.

    The Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is 
operating may, subject to the availability of appropriations, enter 
into cooperative agreements, contracts, or other agreements with, or 
make grants to individuals and governments to carry out the purpose of 
this Act or any agreements established under section 3.

SEC. 6. ICEBREAKING.

    The Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is 
operating shall promote safe maritime navigation by means of 
icebreaking where needed to assure the reasonable demands of commerce.

SEC. 7. DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS.

    The Secretary of Transportation may enter into cooperative 
agreements, contracts, or other agreements with, or make grants to, 
individuals to conduct demonstration projects to reduce emissions or 
discharges from vessels operating in the Arctic.

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated--
            (1) to the Secretary of the department in which the Coast 
        Guard is operating--
                    (A) $750,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2011 and 
                2012 for the construction of two polar capable 
                icebreakers;
                    (B) $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2011 
                through 2015 for seasonal operations in the Arctic; and
                    (C) $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2012 
                through 2015 to carry out agreements established under 
                section 5; and
            (2) to the Secretary of Transportation $5,000,000 for each 
        of fiscal years 2011 through 2015 to conduct demonstration 
        projects under section 7.

SEC. 9. ARCTIC DEFINITION.

    In this Act the term ``Arctic'' has the same meaning as in section 
112 of the Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984 (15 U.S.C. 4111).
                                 <all>
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