Fire-Retardant Materials Exemption Extentions

Floor Speech

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

H.R. 1961 renews the exemption for the Delta Queen from certain Coast Guard requirements adopted decades after the vessel was built.

The Delta Queen, a paddle-wheel riverboat, was built in 1926. It operated in California until 1947 and then carried tourists up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers for more than 60 years. Forty years after the vessel was built, Congress set new rules prohibiting wooden ships from carrying 50 or more overnight passengers. The vessel has a steel hull, but a wooden superstructure.

Between 1968 and 2008, the Delta Queen operated under an exemption from the restriction on wooden passenger vessels, which was renewed nine times by Congress. H.R. 1961 reinstates the Delta Queen exemption. The vessel will still be subject to all other Coast Guard passenger vessel safety requirements. It must undergo required inspections and receive a certificate of inspection, like any other passenger vessel.

I commend my colleague from Ohio, Steve Chabot, and the bill's bipartisan cosponsors for introducing this bill. Permitting the Delta Queen to return to the river is estimated to create 170 jobs and produce economic activity of $9.3 million annually.

The bill before us was reported favorably from the Transportation Committee on a voice vote. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and allow this historic vessel to return to the river.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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