HR 3331

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 13, 2025

Mr. Carbajal (for himself and Mr. Ezell) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

A BILL

To amend title 46, United States Code, with respect to merchant mariner credential examination working groups, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Mariner Exam Modernization Act”.

SEC. 2. EXAMINATIONS FOR MERCHANT MARINER CREDENTIALS.

Section 7510 of title 46, United States Code, is amended—

(1) in subsection (c)—

(A) in the subsection heading by striking “Exam Review” and inserting “Working Group”;

(B) in paragraph (1)—

(i) by striking “90 days” and inserting “180 days”;

(ii) by striking “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2016” and insert “Mariner Exam Modernization Act”;

(iii) by striking “new questions for inclusion in” and inserting “questions, content, and relevancy of”;

(iv) by redesignating subparagraphs (E),

(F), and (G) as subparagraphs (F), (G), and

(H), respectively; and

(v) by inserting after subparagraph (D) the following:

“(E) at least 2 individuals that have taken and passed the examination in the 5 years before the commissioning of the working group;”;

(C) in paragraph (4)—

(i) in the paragraph heading by striking “Baseline review” and inserting “Review”;

(ii) in subparagraph (A)—

(I) by striking “Within 1 year” and inserting “Not later than 270 days”;

(II) by striking “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2016” and inserting “Mariner Exam Modernization Act”;

(III) by striking “Secretary” and inserting “Commandant”;

(IV) by redesignating clauses (i),

(ii), (iii), and (iv) as clauses (ii),

(iii), (iv), and (vii), respectively;

(V) in clause (iv), as so redesignated, by striking “; and” and inserting a semicolon;

(VI) by inserting before clause

(ii) the following:

“(i) industry standards, practices, and technology to be considered in the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination;”; and

(VII) by inserting after clause

(iv) the following:

“(v) the relevancy of examination topics and contents;

“(vi) any redundancy of core competencies between the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination and Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchingkeeping competencies; and”;

(iii) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting the following:

“(B) Report to commandant.—Upon completion of the review under this paragraph, a report shall be provided to the Commandant which shall include findings of the review with recommendations for updates to the Merchant Marine Credentialling Examination.”;

(D) by striking paragraphs (3), (5), and (8);

(E) by redesignating paragraphs (4) and (9) as paragraphs (5) and (8), respectively; and

(F) by inserting after paragraph (2) the following:

“(3) Meeting of working group.—

“(A) In general.—The Commandant shall convene the working group annually or at the creation of new examination questions, whichever occurs sooner.

“(B) Remote participation.—The Commandant shall allow any member of the working group to participate remotely if the member of the working group does not have the means to participate in person.

“(4) Use of questions.—The Commandant may not use questions developed for use in the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination until such questions are reviewed and approved by the working group.”;

(2) by redsignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and

(3) by inserting after subsection (c) the following:

“(d) Plan.—

“(1) Requirement.—Not later than 270 days after the completion of the review under paragraph (4) of subsection (c), the Commandant shall develop a plan to update and modernize the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination and implement the recommendations developed by the review under such paragraph.

“(2) Contents.—The plan developed under paragraph (1) shall include—

“(A) the elimination or updating of outdated topics, contents, core competencies, or questions covered by the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination;

“(B) the modernization of testing procedures consistent with contemporary procedures for standardized testing administration and evaluation; and

“(C) the development of methods to collect examination data on pass and fail rates for questions and the overall examination for future analysis and comparison uses.

“(3) Coordination.—In developing the plan under paragraph

(1), the Commandant shall develop such plan in consultation with the working group and individuals with expertise in modern best practices for relevant standardized testing.

“(4) Briefing required.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Mariner Exam Modernization Act, the Coast Guard shall provide to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a briefing on the review and plan developed under this subsection.”. <all>