Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge the passage of the Senate amendments to H.R. 3360, the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010. The House passed H.R. 3360 on November 17 by a vote of 416-4. On June 10, 2010, the Senate passed this legislation with an amendment which is now before us for consideration today.

I applaud my distinguished colleague, Congresswoman Doris Matsui, the author of H.R. 3360, for her hard work on this legislation and for her tireless work on behalf of her constituent, Ms. Laurie Dishman, and of all victims of crimes on cruise ships.

As chairman of the Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, I've convened two hearings to examine the issue of crime on cruise ships. I applaud Ms. Dishman and so many other victims and family members of victims for testifying before my subcommittee and for their long effort to support the development of legislation that would help ensure no one else is a victim of a crime on a cruise ship.

Almost all of the nearly 200 cruise vessels embarking and disembarking passengers in the U.S. are registered in foreign countries. As a result, when Americans step onto a cruise vessel, they are stepping onto what becomes a floating piece of another country's jurisdiction as soon as it leaves U.S. waters.

All available statistics indicate that crime is rare on cruise vessels, but it does happen. Therefore, H.R. 3360 seeks to improve the safety of passengers on cruise vessels by requiring commonsense measures to help prevent criminal activity and to ensure cruise lines respond appropriately when a crime occurs, including, by providing proper care for crime victims and securing crime scenes.

I believe that H.R. 3360 responds directly to the problems we examined in our hearings by requiring reasonable alterations in vessel design, equipment, and construction standards to increase the physical safety and security of passengers.

For example, H.R. 3360 requires that cruise vessels install peepholes or similar features in cabin doors so that passengers can identify who is at their door without having to open the door.

H.R. 3360 also requires that cruise vessels have railings that are at least 42 inches high to help prevent passengers from falling overboard. This legislation also requires that cruise ships have onboard trained medical personnel who can provide treatment to assault victims, collect evidence to support prosecutions, and administer antiretroviral medications. This legislation also requires that a store of such medications be maintained on cruise vessels.

And at this point, Mr. Speaker, I would also like to give credit to my colleague on our subcommittee and committee, Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Florida, who fought very hard to make sure that folks who may have been victims of rape had the appropriate personnel to address their concerns, as did Ms. Matsui. These provisions are critical to ensuring that those who are victims of sexual assault have immediate access to state-of-the-art medical care.

H.R. 3360 also specifies certain crimes that must be reported to U.S. authorities by any vessel calling on a U.S. port, and it requires the government to maintain an Internet site that provides a numerical accounting of the reported crimes. Such statistics will be aggregated by individual cruise lines, and cruise lines will be required to maintain a link to the site on their own Web pages.

The Senate amendment made several changes to the legislation passed by the House. Some of these changes enhance the legislation, including the addition of a provision requiring cruise ships to inform passengers of jurisdictional authority applicable to crimes occurring in United States territorial waters, on the high seas, and in the countries visited by the vessel.

That said, the Senate amendment also eliminates a number of reports unrelated to crime on cruise ships that have been required by other pieces of legislation to be submitted to the Congress by the Coast Guard, including a report on foreign-flagged vessels calling on U.S. ports and a report on Coast Guard staffing levels in search and rescue centers.

I understand that the elimination of these reports was demanded by a few Senators, ostensibly to offset the costs of implementing safety and security reforms on cruise vessels. I do not believe that measures that improve safety and security, and particularly not measures such as H.R. 3360, which imposes almost all new requirements on the cruise lines themselves, should require offsets, and particularly not offsets such as these.

That said, enactment of H.R. 3360 will make cruising safer for the millions of Americans who travel on cruise vessels each year, and I urge all of the Members of the House to join in passing the Senate amendments to H.R. 3360.

I also take this moment to thank my ranking member, Mr. LoBiondo, for our bipartisan efforts in seeing that this legislation got to the floor and is passed.

I again commend Congresswoman Matsui for her dedication to this cause and for her extraordinary work on H.R. 3360.

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

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