Senate FMC Reauthorization Bill Would Increase Marine Terminal Operator Filing Requirements
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., on May 15 introduced S. 1119, Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) reauthorization legislation for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, which would increase filing requirements covering marine terminal operators. The legislation would expand to marine terminal operators and associated stakeholders a current legal requirement that states the FMC could require common carriers, or officers, receivers, trustees, lessees, agents or employees of the common carrier, to file with the agency “a periodical or special report, an account, record, rate, or charge, or a memorandum of facts and transactions related to the business of the carrier.” Those documents would still be required to be filed within the form and time prescribed by the commission and to be made under oath if FMC instructs.
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The legislation would also authorize the FMC to enter into a cooperative agreement with one or more “private, academic, or other non-Federal persons” to develop an online national seaport information portal for releasing information to increase overall “supply chain visibility, reliability, and resilience with respect to international ocean shipping,” according to the bill text. The portal could include information such as container availability, chassis availability, trucking operations, and “other ocean carrier, seaport, and marine terminal operations,” the bill says. The legislation would also require the FMC to submit to the Senate and House biannual reports -- including one within 60 days of enactment -- describing the agency’s progress toward “addressing the issues raised” in every unfinished “regulatory proceeding,” regardless of whether subject to a statutory or regulatory deadline.
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