Delaware River Protection Act of 2005

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the conference report on the bill (H.R. 889) to authorize appropriations for the Coast Guard for fiscal year 2006, to make technical corrections to various laws administered by the Coast Guard, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 889.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 889, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006.

This bill authorizes $8.7 billion in funding for the Coast Guard, including $1.6 billion for the recapitalization of Coast Guard vessels, aircraft and support systems.

Funding at this level would result in the acceleration of the Deepwater program and would provide a new, more capable fleet to support the Coast Guard's many traditional and homeland security missions.

The conference report also includes provisions related to Coast Guard's response in the regions that were affected last year by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the impacts of the storms on the maritime industry.

The conference report also requires safety inspection for passenger ferries, makes it easier to prosecute illegal drug smugglers, encourages the construction and use of U.S. flag liquefied natural gas vessels, enhances maritime security by increasing penalties for violations of the Maritime Transportation Security Act, and adjusts oil spill liability limits for the first time since the Oil Pollution Act was passed in 1990.

H.R. 889 also includes legislation passed by the House as H.R. 1412, the Delaware River Protection Act.

This bill was introduced by the Coast Guard Subcommittee chairman, our colleague from New Jersey, Mr. Frank LoBiondo. I commend him for his hard work on this measure.

H.R. 889 is a truly bipartisan bill and deserves the support of each Member of this House.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield to the chairman of the subcommittee who has done an outstanding job, a man who understands the Coast Guard and really has been leading the Coast Guard for the last 6 years, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo).

Mr. Speaker, I echo the words of Mr. LoBiondo. This Coast Guard that serves this great Nation of ours has done such an outstanding job over the years in my 34 years in Congress that I can only just applaud each time I see a Coast Guard vessel or a member of the Coast Guard or the flag that they carry.

It is a unique privilege, being in a State that has probably the greatest challenge of all the States and probably the most involved with the Coast Guard. When I first arrived in Congress, we had one Coast Guard station, actually two, one in Juneau, which was a command station, and one in Ketchikan, which was relatively small. Since that time, over the last 34 years, we now have, I believe, the largest Coast Guard unit in the United States on Kodiak Island.

They do a great job not only patrolling and watching for foreign interference of our fishing fleet, but saving my constituents. Many times they go out in weather, and I don't know how many of you watch the show of the most dangerous fishing, the ``Dangerous Catch,'' they call it, but there you will see the Coast Guard involved rescuing people in hundred mile winds, or knots, of seas of about 40 feet, 50 feet, sometimes. Even so bad that it took a helicopter down last year when they were trying to rescue people off a foreign ship that was carrying soybeans.

But they do not only that, but they watch for oil spills which pollute our seas. They do it for the little fisherman going out in the small dinghy, in larger seas than he should have, to catch those big King salmon Alaska has that belongs to Alaska and doesn't belong to Washington State or Canada. And sometimes they get in trouble, and the Coast Guard is there. And the young men and women that enlist and stay voluntarily for years and years, I just compliment them.

This bill is a good bill. As mentioned by Mr. LoBiondo, John Rayfield has done outstanding work. There were very tiring times, especially in conference, because we are dealing with a conference, and they are very difficult in this business we are in. Conferences with the other side are equally difficult but sometimes ridiculous in the sense of what we have to negotiate for. But we believe we have negotiated a good conference. Liz Megginson, my legal counsel, has done very well on this legislation.

And for my colleagues, this is the end of 2006 as far as the authorization for the Coast Guard. As of today, we will be introducing a 2007 reauthorization bill; and we will be working on that, hopefully with expedited results, and getting the bill out of the House and to the Senate to decide and maybe having the finalization and being ahead of the ball game. That is what we are going to attempt to do to try to make sure that the Coast Guard gets the recognition, the organization, the authorization and be able to fulfill the mission that they have and will continue to have.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would just close by urging my colleagues to support this legislation.

The House has under consideration the conference report (109-413) to the bill H.R. 889 to authorize appropriations for the Coast Guard for fiscal year 2006, to make technical corrections to various laws administered by the Coast Guard, and for other purposes.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank the leadership of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for their hard work shepherding through the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2005, and to express my strong support of the bill.

It authorizes $8.7 billion for the Coast Guard for fiscal 2006, which will be used to perform the essential duties of the U.S. Coast Guard in the areas of homeland security, maritime safety, law enforcement, environmental protection, and emergency response: a mission area in which the Coast Guard led the pack in responding to Hurricane Katrina. To support these activities, the conference report authorizes $500 million in additional emergency funds for Katrina response.

Mr. Speaker, I want to highlight a provision that I offered and was accepted by the Committee last July and is included in this conference report. It directs the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a study of the pollution in Newtown Creek caused by underground oil spills in Brooklyn, N.Y. The study is to be fully funded through the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. As outlined in section 410 of the conference report, this study is to be completed no later than one year after enactment of this law.

Newtown Creek is a 3.5 mile long waterway that flows from the East River and separates the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The State of New York has ruled that the Creek does not meet water quality standards under the Clean Water Act. It is the single most polluted waterway in New York City, and its banks are home to the largest oil spill in the United States. The spill is 150 percent the size of the Exxon-Valdez spill.

In 1978, a Coast Guard patrol detected petroleum on the surface of Newtown Creek and identified a spill that spreads from the banks of the Creek through the Greenpoint neighborhood in Brooklyn. Evaluations at that time identified a spill totaling 17 million gallons attributed to refineries operated along the banks of the Creek by the predecessors to ExxonMobil, BP/Amoco and Chevron-Texaco. To date, 8.7 millions gallons have been cleaned but estimates indicate it will take at least 25 more years to finish the remediation, primarily conducted by ExxonMobil under a 1990 consent agreement with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that sets no timetable for completion and includes no meaningful criteria for compliance.

Even though it has been over 25 years since the oil spill was detected, the public health and safety risks associated with the oil spill are still unknown.

The legislative intent of the amendment that directs the Coast Guard to study Newtown Creek (Creek) is for the Environmental Protection Agency to revisit the findings of the U.S. Coast Guard's July 1979 report entitled ``Investigation of Underground Accumulation of Hydrocarbons along Newtown Creek,'' and address the following issues:

The actual current size of the Greenpoint Oil Spill (Spill) and the extent to which oil from each refinery site contributes to the Spill.

The extent and severity of surface water pollution and sediment contamination from the Spill, and methods to prevent further seepage into the Creek.

The Spill's impact on existing conditions in the Creek including but not limited to low levels of dissolved oxygen and high levels of bacteria.

The interaction between pollution from the Spill and pollution from other sources in the Creek including but not limited to Combined Sewer Overflow Pipes and the Newtown Creek Sewage Treatment Plant.

The extent to which oil and contaminated sediments in the Creek disperse into New York Harbor.

The extent to which the Spill has affected aquatic species in the Creek and Harbor, and methods to prevent further harm.

The extent to which the Spill has affected groundwater in the surrounding area, and methods to prevent further harm.

The extent and severity of contaminated soil in the area affected by the Spill, and methods to prevent further harm.

Any public health issues raised by the Spill and the current remediation efforts, both independently and in interaction with other pollutants in the Creek.

Any safety issues raised by the Spill and the current remediation efforts, both independently and in interaction with other pollutants in the Creek.

The extent to which the current remediation efforts are sufficient, and any new technologies or approaches that could accelerate product recovery and/or improve the scope of the remediation.

I would like to express my thanks to Chairman Young, Mr. Oberstar, Chairman LoBiondo, and Mr. Filner for their willingness to work with me on this very important yet often overlooked Issue. The country will benefit from renewed Federal attention on this oil spill, the largest in the country.

Furthermore, I would like to thank my Democratic colleagues in the New York City delegation, all of whom signed a letter to conferees urging that this study be included in the conference report. I would especially like to commend Mrs. Velazquez, who represents the people of Greenpoint. She and I have worked together closely on this initiative.

Additionally, I would like to thank both the Democratic and Republican staff of the Transportation Committee and the Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. In particular, Ward McCarragher and John Cullather of Mr. Oberstar's staff and Fraser Verrusio and John Rayfield of Mr. Young's staff were very helpful.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the efforts of the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) and the opportunity to make a few remarks on this legislation.

On November 26, 2004, the ATHOS I oil tanker struck a submerged object near Paulsboro, New Jersey, and spilled 265,000 gallons of oil into the Delaware River. The spill, the largest to occur in the Delaware River in the last 16 years, struck at the heart of our region, occurring in the Port of Philadelphia.

Two months after the spill, on my 15th day as a Member of Congress, my 15th day on the job, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) convened a hearing in Philadelphia to examine the damage of the spill, the ongoing cleanup effort, and what else might be needed to be done, either now or in the future. I appreciated the chairman's willingness to have me participate in that hearing as a very new member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

We all found, and we heard from the testimony, that this spill had caused millions of dollars in damages and affected more than 100 miles of shoreline in three States. Moreover, it impeded trade, temporarily shut down a nuclear power plant, put area drinking water at risk, and injured and killed wildlife. Unfortunately, many regional environmental experts testified that the impact of the oil spill would continue to linger, further damaging critical species such as oysters and horseshoe crabs. The devastating multiplier effect of the spill and the expert testimonies made clear that action was needed, not just for the cleanup, but for prevention.

As a consequence of what we found, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews), and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton) and I coauthored this bill, a bill that would protect the environmental integrity and economic vitality of the Delaware River and the greater Philadelphia area.

Mr. Speaker, the Delaware River Protection Act will take several very important steps to help prevent future oil

spills. It will require mandatory reporting to the Coast Guard of overboard objects in order to facilitate their recovery and will impose civil or criminal penalties for those who fail to give prompt notification. It will encourage shippers to use double-hull tankers, which are safer and less susceptible to the damage caused by the single hull tankers. It will hold shippers accountable for damages caused by a spill by phasing in an increased liability standard, the first increase since 1990. And it will establish a River and Bay Advisory Committee which will be comprised of representatives from shipping, oil, labor, environment, and the general public to report to Congress on how best to prevent and respond to future incidences along the Delaware River.

I also want to note that in addition to these actions, the Water Resources Development Act, which will be considered by the full House later this week, includes a key provision that was originally part of this legislation. Specifically, it will provide the Army Corps of Engineers with the authority to remove debris along the Delaware River, a vital authority as we increase efforts to keep our waterways clear of dangerous debris. It is my hope that the Water Resources Development Act will be received in an equally bipartisan manner.

Mr. Speaker, the Delaware River Protection Act represents a true collaborative effort. I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) for his leadership on this bill, as well as his office staff, Geoff Gosselin, and the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation staff John Cullather, Eric Nagel and John Rayfield for their hard work on this important issue and working so closely with my staff.

Undoubtedly, implementation of this legislation will help to prevent future oil spills along the river, while also preserving the Port of Philadelphia as the regional resource that it is. That is why I urge my colleagues to support passage of this legislation.

I thank the chairman for yielding, and I would like to thank Chairman Young for his ongoing very strong support for the Coast Guard and their maritime missions.

H.R. 889, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act, authorizes nearly $8.7 billion in funding for the Coast Guard in fiscal year 2006. This authorization includes funding to support each of the Coast Guard's important missions, including many that have been highlighted in response to the tragedy that occurred in the gulf region last year.

The Coast Guard is a unique entity within the Federal Government, as both a military service and a Federal agency with law enforcement abilities and wide regulatory responsibilities. The men and women of the Coast Guard carry out their missions every day to protect the safety and security of our Nation. Whether the mission involves saving thousands of lives, responding to oil spills, keeping our ports and waterways open, or boarding a suspicious vessel, the men and women of the Coast Guard work tirelessly.

However, we cannot allow the commitment that is being shown by the men and women of the Coast Guard to go on without a real commitment by this body to provide the service with the assets and resources necessary to carry out all of these missions that we have asked them to do. H.R. 889 will authorize the funding levels required to do just that.

H.R. 889 authorizes $1.6 billion for the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System, a critically important system. Every day our Coast Guard servicemembers must deal with the unfortunate reality that an aircraft or boat they command may lose power, spring a leak, or otherwise fail to operate. This is unacceptable. It puts the safety of our personnel and the success of their mission in real jeopardy. We must accelerate Deepwater to make replacement assets available now. I urge my colleagues to support funding levels in this bill and in the future to make this a reality.

H.R. 889 also includes important oil spill response and liability provisions originally included in the Delaware River Protection Act legislation that I introduced, along with Representatives Saxton, Castle, Andrews, and Schwartz, in the wake of the Athos I oil spill in the Delaware River. These provisions represent the first real effort in 15 years to strengthen our Federal oil spill prevention and response system. This bill will provide the Federal Government with the authorities that will enhance our capability to prevent and respond to future oil spills.

Once again, I would like to thank Chairman Young for his strong support, Ranking Member Oberstar, as well as subcommittee Ranking Member

Filner for working with me to develop a strong bipartisan product. I would also like to thank our dedicated staff on both sides of the aisle for their work: John Rayfield, Eric Nagel, and Liz Megginson on the majority staff, and John Cullather on the minority staff, who did an outstanding job in helping us put this conference report together.

The bill takes a balanced approach to providing the resources and authorities necessary to support each of the Coast Guard's many and varied missions. Although the Coast Guard has received a great deal of attention for its port security mission, we must strive to protect the service's unique multi-mission character. We must maintain a Coast Guard with the ability to successfully accomplish each of its vital missions.

I would like to urge all my colleagues to support this important bill and continue to support the men and women of the Coast Guard who do such an exceptionally good job for the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1412) to amend the Ports and Waterways Safety Act to require notification of the Coast Guard regarding obstructions to navigation, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 1412.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1412, the Delaware River Protection Act, makes several amendments to current law to enhance the Coast Guard's and the Federal Government's capability to prevent and respond to future oil spills in U.S. waters.

On November 26 of 2004, the ATHOS I struck a submerged object and released more than 260,000 gallons of heavy crude oil into the Delaware River. I commend the excellent work of the Coast Guard, in cooperation with other Federal and State agencies, to minimize the impact of the spill. However, this incident has brought several issues to light that are needed to enhance our capabilities to prevent and to respond to future oil spills.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1412 would require persons to notify the Coast Guard in the event that an object is released into U.S. waters that could cause the obstruction to navigation or, in the case of the ATHOS I, rip open the bottom of a ship. Mr. Speaker, let me give an example of why this provision is necessary. Under current regulations, an individual must report the creation of an obstruction only when the obstruction is caused by a sunken vessel. In other words, you must notify the Coast Guard when a vessel, whether a dinghy or a cruise ship, is sunk in a navigable waterway, but you need not report the loss of a large object such as a 7-foot anchor which, in this case, ripped the hull of the ATHOS I.

The notification requirement included in this bill will provide the Coast Guard with the information necessary to mark the location of potential obstructions on nautical charts until those obstructions can be removed. This provision will improve maritime safety and will protect the environment and economies of our local communities by further preventing similar mishaps in the future.

H.R. 1412 also directs the President to adjust liability limits for vessel owners to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index since 1990 and establishes a research program to develop and test technologies to detect and remove submerged oil from our waterways.

This bill will provide the Federal Government with authorities that will

enhance our capabilities to prevent and respond to future oil spills in U.S. waters. I would like to thank my colleagues, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), and the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Schwartz), for their help, participation, and cosponsoring this bill.

I urge the House to support H.R. 1412.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), and I thank him again for his participation and help.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Schwartz) and again thank her for her participation.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.