Senator Carper celebrates the passage of a bill that reauthorizes the work of U.S. Coast Guard
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. – U.S. Senator Tom Carper celebrated Monday morning with the U.S. Coast Guard in Rehoboth Beach for the passage of the new Coast Guard Authorization Act.
The authorization act provides funding for the Coast Guard to operate in a two year authorization. Senator Carper says, “It enables them to buy and build ships, cutters and so forth which is more cost effective, which modernize their fleet.”
Besides funding, it will also expand their efforts such as longer-term acquisitions and provides expanded authorities.
The bill also includes the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act, known as VIDA, which empowers the Coast Guard to protect waterways and ecosystems by limiting pollution and invasive species that comes from a boat’s ballast discharge.
Captain Scott Anderson from the Coast Guard Delaware Bay says, “One of the concerns is ballast water if there is a species from another country that are brought in here and there is a discharge in our water and there is a concern with that and so what this act does is along with the Environmental Protection Agency to work through the standards and how do we keep the waters from invasive species. We receive something in the order of 2,600 unique vessels arrivals per year, that’s deep draft commercial vessels, so this is a very busy waterway and how we manage ballast water and water discharge makes a difference here because there are so many ships coming through the area.”
Senator Carper tells 47 ABC that this act is not only a big win for our waterways but also for Congress. “Most people focus on all the fighting divisiveness in Washington but in this case, this was great bipartisan effort which will actually enable the coast guard to be more effective with many responsibilities up and down the coast,” Senator Carper says.
The House just passed the bill on November 27, after passing the Senate with a 94-6 vote earlier this month.
It will now head to the White House, where President Trump is expected to sign it by the end of this year. Once it’s signed, it will take effect immediately.
