H. R. 6395—1324 
SEC. 8345. VESSEL TRAFFIC SERVICE. 
Section 70001 of title 46, United States Code, is amended 
to read as follows: 
‘‘§ 70001. Vessel traffic services 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the requirements of section 70004, 
the Secretary— 
‘‘(1) in any port or place under the jurisdiction of the 
United States, in the navigable waters of the United States, 
or in any area covered by an international agreement negotiated 
pursuant to section 70005, may construct, operate, maintain, 
improve, or expand vessel traffic services, that consist of meas-
ures for controlling or supervising vessel traffic or for protecting 
navigation and the marine environment and that may include 
one or more of reporting and operating requirements, surveil-
lance and communications systems, routing systems, and fair-
ways; 
‘‘(2) shall require appropriate vessels that operate in an 
area of a vessel traffic service to utilize or comply with that 
service; 
‘‘(3) may require vessels to install and use specified naviga-
tion equipment, communications equipment, electronic relative 
motion analyzer equipment, or any electronic or other device 
necessary to comply with a vessel traffic service or that is 
necessary in the interests of vessel safety, except that the 
Secretary shall not require fishing vessels under 300 gross 
tons as measured under section 14502, or an alternate tonnage 
measured under section 14302 as prescribed by the Secretary 
under section 14104, or recreational vessels 65 feet or less 
to possess or use the equipment or devices required by this 
subsection solely under the authority of this chapter; 
‘‘(4) may control vessel traffic in areas subject to the juris-
diction of the United States that the Secretary determines 
to be hazardous, or under conditions of reduced visibility, 
adverse weather, vessel congestion, or other hazardous cir-
cumstances, by— 
‘‘(A) specifying times of entry, movement, or departure; 
‘‘(B) establishing vessel traffic routing schemes; 
‘‘(C) establishing vessel size, speed, or draft limitations 
and vessel operating conditions; and 
‘‘(D) restricting operation, in any hazardous area or 
under hazardous conditions, to vessels that have particular 
operating characteristics or capabilities that the Secretary 
considers necessary for safe operation under the cir-
cumstances; 
‘‘(5) may require the receipt of prearrival messages from 
any vessel, destined for a port or place subject to the jurisdiction 
of the United States, in sufficient time to permit advance vessel 
traffic planning before port entry, which shall include any 
information that is not already a matter of record and that 
the Secretary determines necessary for the control of the vessel 
and the safety of the port or the marine environment; and 
‘‘(6) may prohibit the use on vessels of electronic or other 
devices that interfere with communication and navigation 
equipment, except that such authority shall not apply to elec-
tronic or other devices certified to transmit in the maritime 
services by the Federal Communications Commission and used
H. R. 6395—1325 
within the frequency bands 157.1875–157.4375 MHz and 
161.7875–162.0375 MHz. 
‘‘(b) NATIONAL POLICY.— 
‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT AND UPDATE OF NATIONAL POLICY.— 
‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT OF POLICY.—Not later than one 
year after the date of enactment of this section, the Sec-
retary shall establish a national policy which is inclusive 
of local variances permitted under subsection (c), to be 
applied to all vessel traffic service centers and publish 
such policy in the Federal Register. 
‘‘(B) UPDATE.—The Secretary shall periodically update 
the national policy established under subparagraph (A) 
and shall publish such update in the Federal Register 
or on a publicly available website. 
‘‘(2) ELEMENTS.—The national policy established and 
updated under paragraph (1) shall include, at a minimum, 
the following: 
‘‘(A) Standardization of titles, roles, and responsibilities 
for all personnel assigned, working, or employed in a vessel 
traffic service center. 
‘‘(B) Standardization of organizational structure within 
vessel traffic service centers, to include supervisory and 
reporting chain and processes. 
‘‘(C) Establishment of directives for the application of 
authority provided to each vessel traffic service center, 
specifically with respect to directing or controlling vessel 
movement when such action is justified in the interest 
of safety. 
‘‘(D) Establishment of thresholds and measures for 
monitoring, informing, recommending, and directing vessel 
traffic. 
‘‘(E) Establishment of national procedures and proto-
cols for vessel traffic management. 
‘‘(F) Standardization of training for all vessel traffic 
service directors, operators, and watchstanders. 
‘‘(G) Establishment of certification and competency 
evaluation for all vessel traffic service directors, operators, 
and watchstanders. 
‘‘(H) Establishment of standard operating language 
when communicating with vessel traffic users. 
‘‘(I) Establishment of data collection, storage, manage-
ment, archiving, and dissemination policies and procedures 
for vessel incidents and near-miss incidents. 
‘‘(c) LOCAL VARIANCES.— 
‘‘(1) DEVELOPMENT.—In this section, the Secretary may 
provide for such local variances as the Secretary considers 
appropriate to account for the unique vessel traffic, waterway 
characteristics, and any additional factors that are appropriate 
to enhance navigational safety in any area where vessel traffic 
services are provided. 
‘‘(2) REVIEW AND APPROVAL BY SECRETARY.—The Captain 
of the Port covered by a vessel traffic service center may develop 
and submit to the Secretary regional policies in addition to 
the national policy established and updated under subsection 
(b) to account for variances from that national policy with 
respect to local vessel traffic conditions and volume, geography,
H. R. 6395—1326 
water body characteristics, waterway usage, and any additional 
factors that the Captain considers appropriate. 
‘‘(3) REVIEW
AND
IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 180 
days after receiving regional policies under paragraph (2)— 
‘‘(A) the Secretary shall review such regional policies; 
and 
‘‘(B) the Captain of the port concerned shall implement 
the policies that the Secretary approves. 
‘‘(4) MAINTENANCE.—The Secretary shall maintain a central 
depository for all local variances approved under this section. 
‘‘(d) COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may enter into cooperative 
agreements with public or private agencies, authorities, associa-
tions, institutions, corporations, organizations, or other persons 
to carry out the functions under subsection (a)(1). 
‘‘(2) INTERNATIONAL COORDINATION.—With respect to vessel 
traffic service areas that cross international boundaries, the 
Secretary may enter into bilateral or cooperative agreements 
with international partners to jointly carry out the functions 
under subsection (a)(1) and to jointly manage such areas to 
collect, share, assess, and analyze information in the possession 
or control of the international partner. 
‘‘(3) LIMITATION.— 
‘‘(A) INHERENTLY GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTION.—A non-
governmental entity may not under this subsection carry 
out an inherently governmental function. 
‘‘(B) DEFINITION OF INHERENTLY GOVERNMENTAL FUNC-
TION.—In this paragraph, the term ‘inherently govern-
mental function’ means any activity that is so intimately 
related to the public interest as to mandate performance 
by an officer or employee of the Federal Government, 
including an activity that requires either the exercise of 
discretion in applying the authority of the Government 
or the use of judgment in making a decision for the Govern-
ment. 
‘‘(4) DISCLOSURE.—The Commandant of the Coast Guard 
shall de-identify information prior to release to the public, 
including near miss incidents. 
‘‘(e) PERFORMANCE EVALUATION.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall develop and imple-
ment a standard method for evaluating the performance of 
vessel traffic service centers. 
‘‘(2) ELEMENTS.—The standard method developed and 
implemented under paragraph (1) shall include, at a minimum, 
analysis and collection of data with respect to the following 
within a vessel traffic service area covered by each vessel 
traffic service center: 
‘‘(A) Volume of vessel traffic, categorized by type of 
vessel. 
‘‘(B) Total volume of flammable, combustible, or haz-
ardous liquid cargo transported, categorized by vessel type 
as provided in the Notice of Arrival, if applicable, or as 
determined by other means. 
‘‘(C) Data on near-miss incidents. 
‘‘(D) Data on marine casualties.
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‘‘(E) Application by vessel traffic operators of traffic 
management authority during near-miss incidents and 
marine casualties. 
‘‘(F) Other additional methods as the Secretary con-
siders appropriate. 
‘‘(3) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
enactment of this paragraph, and biennially thereafter, the 
Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representa-
tives a report on the evaluation conducted under paragraph 
(1) of the performance of vessel traffic service centers, 
including— 
‘‘(A) recommendations to improve safety and perform-
ance; and 
‘‘(B) data regarding marine casualties and near-miss 
incidents that have occurred during the period covered 
by the report. 
‘‘(f) RISK ASSESSMENT PROGRAM.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall develop a continuous 
risk assessment program to evaluate and mitigate safety risks 
for each vessel traffic service area to improve safety and reduce 
the risks of oil and hazardous material discharge in navigable 
waters. 
‘‘(2) METHOD FOR ASSESSMENT.—The Secretary, in coordina-
tion with stakeholders and the public, shall develop a standard 
method for conducting risk assessments under paragraph (1) 
that includes the collection and management of all information 
necessary to identify and analyze potential hazardous naviga-
tional trends within a vessel traffic service area. 
‘‘(3) INFORMATION TO BE ASSESSED.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall ensure that a 
risk assessment conducted under paragraph (1) includes 
an assessment of the following: 
‘‘(i) Volume of vessel traffic, categorized by type 
of vessel. 
‘‘(ii) Total volume of flammable, combustible, or 
hazardous liquid cargo transported, categorized by 
vessel type as provided in the Notice of Arrival, if 
applicable, or as determined by other means. 
‘‘(iii) Data on near-miss events incidents. 
‘‘(iv) Data on marine casualties. 
‘‘(v) Geographic locations for near-miss events 
incidents and marine casualties, including latitude and 
longitude. 
‘‘(vi) Cyclical risk factors such as weather, seasonal 
water body currents, tides, bathymetry, and topog-
raphy. 
‘‘(vii) Weather data, in coordination with the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
‘‘(B) INFORMATION
STORAGE
AND
MANAGEMENT
POLI-
CIES.—The Secretary shall retain all information collected 
under subparagraph (A) and ensure policies and procedures 
are in place to standardize the format in which that 
information is retained to facilitate statistical analysis of 
that information to calculate within a vessel traffic service