‘‘§ 1101. Definitions 
‘‘(a) ACCIDENT DEFINED.—In this chapter, the term 
‘accident’— 
‘‘(1) means an event associated with the oper-
ation of a vehicle, aircraft, or pipeline, which results 
in damage to or destruction of the vehicle, aircraft, or 
pipeline, or which results in the death of or serious 
injury to any person, regardless of whether the initi-
ating event is accidental or otherwise; and 
‘‘(2) may include an incident that does not in-
volve destruction or damage of a vehicle, aircraft, or 
pipeline, but affects transportation safety, as the 
Board prescribes by regulation. 
‘‘(b) APPLICABILITY
OF
DEFINITIONS
IN
OTHER 
LAWS.—The definitions contained in section 2101(17a) of 
title 46 and section 40102(a) of this title apply to this chap-
ter.’’. 
SEC. 4. GENERAL ORGANIZATION. 
The last sentence of section 1111(d) is amended by 
striking ‘‘absent’’ and inserting ‘‘unavailable’’. 
SEC. 5. ADMINISTRATIVE. 
(a) 
GENERAL
AUTHORITY.—Section 
1113(a) 
is 
amended— 
(1) in paragraph (1)— 
(A) by inserting ‘‘and depositions’’ after 
‘‘hearings’’; and 
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(B) by striking ‘‘subpena’’ and inserting 
‘‘subpoena’’; and 
(2) in paragraph (2) by inserting before the first 
sentence the following: ‘‘In the interest of promoting 
transportation safety, the Board shall have the au-
thority by subpoena to summon witnesses and obtain 
evidence relevant to an accident investigation con-
ducted under this chapter.’’. 
(b) ADDITIONAL POWERS.— 
(1) AUTHORITY OF BOARD TO ENTER INTO CON-
TRACTS AND OTHER AGREEMENTS WITH NONPROFIT 
ENTITIES.—Section 1113(b)(1)(H) is amended by in-
serting ‘‘and other agreements’’ after ‘‘contracts’’. 
(2) AUTHORITY OF BOARD TO ENTER INTO AND 
PERFORM
CONTRACTS, AGREEMENTS, LEASES, OR 
OTHER TRANSACTIONS.—Section 1113(b) is amend-
ed— 
(A) by striking paragraph (1)(I) and in-
serting the following: 
‘‘(I) negotiate, enter into, and perform contracts, 
agreements, leases, or other transactions with individ-
uals, private entities, departments, agencies, and in-
strumentalities of the Government, State and local 
governments, and governments of foreign countries on 
such terms and conditions as the Chairman of the 
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Board considers appropriate to carry out the func-
tions of the Board and require that such entities pro-
vide appropriate consideration for the reasonable 
costs of any facilities, goods, services, or training pro-
vided by the Board.’’; and 
(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(3) LEASE LIMITATION.—The authority of the 
Board to enter into leases shall be limited to the pro-
vision of special use space related to an accident in-
vestigation, or for general use space, at an average 
annual rental cost of not more than $300,000 for any 
individual property.’’. 
(3) AUTHORITY
OF
OTHER
FEDERAL
AGEN-
CIES.—Section 1113(b)(2) is amended to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘(2) AUTHORITY
OF
OTHER
FEDERAL
AGEN-
CIES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
the head of a Federal department, agency, or instru-
mentality may transfer to or receive from the Board, 
with or without reimbursement, supplies, personnel, 
services, and equipment (other than administrative 
supplies and equipment).’’. 
(c) CRITERIA ON PUBLIC HEARINGS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1113 is amended by 
adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘(i) PUBLIC HEARINGS.— 
‘‘(1) DEVELOPMENT OF CRITERIA.—The Board 
shall establish by regulation criteria to be used by the 
Board in determining, for each accident investigation 
and safety study undertaken by the Board, whether or 
not the Board will hold a public hearing on the inves-
tigation or study. 
‘‘(2) FACTORS.—In developing the criteria, the 
Board shall give priority consideration to the fol-
lowing factors: 
‘‘(A) Whether the accident has caused sig-
nificant loss of life. 
‘‘(B) Whether the accident has caused sig-
nificant property damage. 
‘‘(C) Whether the accident may involve a 
national transportation safety issue. 
‘‘(D) Whether a public hearing may provide 
needed information to the Board. 
‘‘(E) Whether a public hearing may offer an 
opportunity to educate the public on a safety 
issue. 
‘‘(F) Whether a public hearing may in-
crease both the transparency of the Board’s in-
vestigative process and public confidence that 
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such process is comprehensive, accurate, and un-
biased. 
‘‘(G) Whether a public hearing is likely to 
significantly delay the conclusion of an inves-
tigation and whether the possible adverse effects 
of the delay on safety outweigh the benefits of a 
public hearing.’’. 
(2) ANNUAL REPORT.—Section 1117 is amend-
ed— 
(A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para-
graph (5); 
(B) by striking the period at the end of 
paragraph (6) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(7) an analysis of the Board’s implementation 
of the criteria established pursuant to section 1113(i) 
during the prior calendar year, including an expla-
nation of any instance in which the Board did not 
hold a public hearing for an investigation of an acci-
dent that has caused significant loss of life or prop-
erty damage or that may involve a national transpor-
tation safety issue.’’. 
SEC. 6. RECORDINGS, TRANSCRIPTS, AND INVESTIGATIONS. 
(a) VESSEL RECORDINGS AND TRANSCRIPTS.—Section 
1114 is amended— 
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(1) in subsection (a)(1) by striking ‘‘and (f)’’ 
and inserting ‘‘(e), and (g)’’; 
(2) in subsection (d)(1) by striking ‘‘or vessel’’; 
(3) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as 
subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and 
(4) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(e) VESSEL RECORDINGS AND TRANSCRIPTS.— 
‘‘(1) CONFIDENTIALITY
OF
RECORDINGS
AND 
TRANSCRIPTS.—The Board may not disclose publicly 
any part of a vessel’s voice or video recorder recording 
or transcript of oral communications by or among the 
crew, pilots, or docking masters of a vessel, vessel traf-
fic services, or other vessels, or between the vessel’s 
crew and company communication centers, related to 
an accident investigated by the Board. However, the 
Board shall make public any part of a transcript or 
any written depiction of visual information that the 
Board decides is relevant to the accident— 
‘‘(A) if the Board holds a public hearing on 
the accident, at the time of the hearing; or 
‘‘(B) if the Board does not hold a public 
hearing, at the time a majority of the other fac-
tual reports on the accident are placed in the 
public docket. 
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‘‘(2) REFERENCES TO INFORMATION IN MAKING 
SAFETY
RECOMMENDATIONS.—This subsection does 
not prevent the Board from referring at any time to 
voice or video recorder information in making safety 
recommendations.’’. 
(b) PARTY REPRESENTATIVES TO NTSB INVESTIGA-
TIONS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Section 1114 is further 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(h) PARTY REPRESENTATIVES TO NTSB INVESTIGA-
TIONS.— 
‘‘(1) PROHIBITION ON DISCLOSURE OF INFORMA-
TION.—A party representative to an accident inves-
tigation of the Board is prohibited from disclosing, 
orally or in written form, investigative information, 
as defined by the Board, to anyone who is not an em-
ployee of the Board or who is not a party representa-
tive to such investigation, except— 
‘‘(A) as provided in paragraph (2); or 
‘‘(B) at the conclusion of the fact finding 
stage of an investigation, which the investigator- 
in-charge shall announce by formal posting of a 
notice in the publicly available investigation 
docket. 
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‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—If the investigator-in-charge 
determines that a disclosure of information related to 
an accident investigation is necessary to prevent ad-
ditional accidents, to address a perceived safety defi-
ciency, or to assist in the conduct of the investigation, 
the investigator-in-charge may at any time authorize 
in writing a party representative to disclose such in-
formation under conditions approved by the investi-
gator-in-charge. Such conditions shall ensure that, 
until the posting of a formal notice described in para-
graph (1)(B), or until the information disclosed pur-
suant to this paragraph becomes publicly available by 
any other means, neither the entity represented by the 
party representative nor any other person may use 
such information in preparation for the prosecution 
of any claim or defense in litigation in connection 
with the accident being investigated or to make or 
deny any insurance claim in connection with such 
accident. 
‘‘(3) COMPLIANCE.—The Board shall require any 
individual who is a party representative to an inves-
tigation of the Board to sign a party agreement that 
includes language informing the individual of the 
prohibition in paragraph (1). 
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‘‘(4) REPRESENTATIVES
OF
FEDERAL
AGEN-
CIES.—Paragraph (3) shall not apply to an indi-
vidual who is a representative of the Secretary of 
Transportation, the Secretary of the department in 
which the Coast Guard is operating, or any other 
Federal department, agency, or instrumentality par-
ticipating in the investigation and deemed by the 
Board to be performing a law enforcement or similar 
function. 
‘‘(5) PARTY REPRESENTATIVE DEFINED.—In this 
subsection, the term ‘party representative’ means an 
individual representing a party to an investigation 
pursuant to section 831.11 of title 49, Code of Federal 
Regulations, as in effect on the date of enactment of 
this subsection.’’. 
(2) CIVIL PENALTY.—Section 1151 is amended— 
(A) in the section heading by striking 
‘‘Aviation enforcement’’ 
and 
inserting 
‘‘Enforcement’’; and 
(B) by inserting ‘‘1114(h),’’ before ‘‘1132,’’ 
in each of subsections (a), (b)(1), and (c). 
(3) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The analysis for 
chapter 11 is amended by striking the item relating 
to section 1151 and inserting the following: 
‘‘1151. Enforcement.’’. 
(c) GAO STUDY OF PARTY PROCESS.— 
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Comptroller General shall 
conduct a study on the use of party representatives in 
investigations conducted by the National Transpor-
tation Safety Board. 
(2) CONTENTS.—In conducting the study, the 
Comptroller General shall examine, at a minimum— 
(A) whether the composition of the party 
representatives should be broadened to include 
on-going representatives from other entities that 
could provide independent, technically qualified 
representatives to a Board investigation; 
(B) whether the participation of party rep-
resentatives in a Board investigation results in 
any unfair advantages for the entities rep-
resented by the party representatives while the 
Board is conducting the investigation; 
(C) whether the use of party representatives 
leads to bias in the outcome of a Board inves-
tigation; and 
(D) whether Board investigations would be 
compromised in any way absent the participa-
tion and expertise of party representatives. 
(3) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 
months after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Comptroller General shall submit to the Committee on 
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Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of 
Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report on 
the results of the study conducted under this sub-
section, including any recommendations for improve-
ments in the Board’s use of the party representative 
process. 
SEC. 7. TRAINING. 
Section 1115(d) is amended— 
(1) by inserting ‘‘theory and techniques and on 
transportation safety methods to advance Board safe-
ty recommendations’’ before the period at the end of 
the first sentence; 
(2) by inserting ‘‘or who influence the course of 
transportation safety through support or adoption of 
Board safety recommendations’’ before the period at 
the end of the second sentence; and 
(3) by inserting ‘‘under section 1118(c)(2)’’ be-
fore the period at the end of the third sentence. 
SEC. 8. REPORTS AND STUDIES. 
(a) STUDIES AND INVESTIGATIONS.—Section 1116(b) 
is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (1) by striking ‘‘carry out’’ 
and inserting ‘‘conduct’’; and 
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(2) by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the 
following: 
‘‘(3) prescribe requirements for persons reporting 
accidents, as defined in section 1101(a), that may be 
investigated by the Board under this chapter;’’. 
(b) INTERIM SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS AND MEAS-
URES.—Section 1116 is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘(c) INTERIM SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS AND MEAS-
URES.—Nothing in this section shall restrict the Board 
from— 
‘‘(1) making urgent safety recommendations, 
identified through an ongoing safety investigation or 
study, to any regulatory department, agency, or in-
strumentality of the Federal Government or a State 
or local governmental authority or a person concerned 
with transportation safety; or 
‘‘(2) recommending interim measures to mitigate 
risks to transportation safety pending implementation 
of more comprehensive responses by the appropriate 
department, agency, instrumentality, authority, or 
person.’’. 
(c) EVALUATION
AND AUDIT.—Section 1138(a) is 
amended by striking ‘‘conducted at least annually, but may 
be’’. 
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SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1118(a) is amended to read 
as follows: 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro-
priated for the purposes of this chapter— 
‘‘(1) $117,368,000 for fiscal year 2011; 
‘‘(2) $120,258,000 for fiscal year 2012; 
‘‘(3) $122,187,000 for fiscal year 2013; and 
‘‘(4) $124,158,000 for fiscal year 2014. 
Such sums shall remain available until expended.’’. 
(b) FEES, REFUNDS, REIMBURSEMENTS, AND AD-
VANCES.—Section 1118(c) is amended— 
(1) by striking the subsection heading and in-
serting the following: ‘‘FEES, REFUNDS, REIMBURSE-
MENTS, AND ADVANCES’’; 
(2) in paragraph (1)— 
(A) by striking ‘‘and reimbursements’’ and 
inserting ‘‘reimbursements, and advances’’; and 
(B) by striking ‘‘services’’ and inserting 
‘‘activities, services, and facilities’’; 
(3) in paragraph (2)— 
(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 
(A) by striking ‘‘or reimbursement’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘reimbursement, or advance’’; and 
(B) in each of subparagraphs (A) and (B) 
by striking ‘‘activities’’ and all that follows be-
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fore the semicolon and inserting ‘‘activities, serv-
ices, or facilities for which the fee, refund, reim-
bursement, or advance is associated’’; 
(4) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para-
graph (4); 
(5) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(3) ANNUAL
RECORD
OF
COLLECTIONS.—The 
Board shall maintain an annual record of collections 
received under paragraph (2).’’; and 
(6) in paragraph (4) (as redesignated by para-
graph (4) of this subsection) by inserting ‘‘or ad-
vance’’ after ‘‘fee’’. 
SEC. 10. ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION AUTHORITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1131(a)(1) is amended— 
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A) by 
striking ‘‘cause or probable cause’’ and inserting 
‘‘causes or probable causes’’; 
(2) in subparagraph (C) by striking ‘‘a fatality 
or substantial property damage’’ and inserting ‘‘a fa-
tality (other than a fatality involving a trespasser) or 
substantial property damage’’; 
(3) in subparagraph (E) by striking ‘‘and’’ at 
the end; 
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(4) in subparagraph (F) by striking the period 
at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(5) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(G) an accident in response to an international 
request and delegation under appropriate inter-
national conventions, coordinated through the Depart-
ment of State and accepted by the Board.’’. 
(b) AUTHORITIES OF OTHER AGENCIES.—The second 
sentence of section 1131(a)(3) is amended by inserting ‘‘or 
relevant to’’ after ‘‘developed about’’. 
(c) ACCIDENTS NOT INVOLVING GOVERNMENT MISFEA-
SANCE OR NONFEASANCE.—Section 1131(c) is amended by 
adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(3) AUTHORITY OF BOARD REPRESENTATIVE.— 
In the case of a delegation of authority under para-
graph (1), the Secretary, or a person designated by 
the Secretary, shall have the authority of the Board, 
on display of appropriate credentials and written no-
tice of inspection authority, to enter property where 
the aircraft accident has occurred or wreckage from 
the accident is located and to gather evidence in sup-
port of a Board investigation, in accordance with 
rules the Board may prescribe.’’. 
(d) INCIDENT
INVESTIGATIONS.—Section 1131 is 
amended by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘(f) INCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS.— 
‘‘(1) MEMORANDUM
OF
UNDERSTANDING.—Not 
later than 90 days after the issuance of final regula-
tions under section 1101(a)(2), the Chairman of the 
Board shall seek to enter into a memorandum of un-
derstanding with the Secretary of Transportation and 
the head of each modal administration of the Depart-
ment of Transportation that sets forth— 
‘‘(A) an understanding of the conditions 
under which the Board will conduct an incident 
investigation that involves the applicable mode of 
transportation; and 
‘‘(B) the roles and responsibilities of the 
parties to the memorandum when the Board is 
conducting an incident investigation. 
‘‘(2) UPDATES
AND
RENEWALS.—Each memo-
randum of understanding required under paragraph 
(1) shall be updated and renewed not less than once 
every 5 years, unless parties to the memorandum 
agree that updating the memorandum is unnecessary. 
‘‘(3) BOARD AUTHORITY.—Nothing in this para-
graph negates the authority of the Board to inves-
tigate an incident. 
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‘‘(4) INCIDENT DEFINED.—In this subsection, the 
term ‘incident’ means an incident described in regu-
lations issued under section 1101(a)(2).’’. 
SEC. 11. MARITIME CASUALTY INVESTIGATIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 11 is amended by insert-
ing after section 1132 the following: 
‘‘§ 1132a. Maritime casualty investigations 
‘‘(a) 
DELEGATION
OF
AUTHORITY
TO
COAST 
GUARD.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—In an investigation of a 
major marine casualty under section 1131(a)(1)(E), 
the Board, with the consent of the Secretary of the de-
partment in which the Coast Guard is operating, 
may delegate to the Commandant of the Coast Guard 
full authority to obtain the facts of the casualty. In 
the case of such a delegation, the Commandant, acting 
through the Commandant’s on-scene representative, 
shall have the full authority of the Board. 
‘‘(2) REQUIRED
TRAINING, EXPERIENCE, AND 
QUALIFICATIONS.—The Board may not make a dele-
gation under paragraph (1) unless the Board deter-
mines that the Commandant’s on-scene representa-
tives have sufficient training, experience, and quali-
fications in investigation, marine casualty recon-
struction, evidence collection and preservation, human 
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