HR 4813 Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.
Noncontiguous Disaster Shipping Act
To amend title 46, United States Code, to provide for a waiver of navigation or vessel-inspection laws in noncontiguous areas upon a declaration of a major disaster or emergency, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill allows federal agencies to waive navigation and vessel-inspection laws for ships delivering disaster relief cargo to noncontiguous U.S. territories and states—Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska—following a presidential declaration of a major disaster or emergency. Waivers may be issued for up to ten days and can be extended for an additional ten days in consultation with the affected state or territory governor, with a maximum aggregate duration of forty-five days per disaster. Federal agencies must notify Congress within forty-eight hours of issuing any waiver or extension.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
4 cosponsors
Actions (4)
- Jul 30, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. · house
- Jul 30, 2025 Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management. · house
- Jul 29, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. · house
- Jul 29, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Text versions (1)
Bills are re-published as they move (Introduced → Reported → Engrossed → Enrolled …). Each stage below is a separate text; pick two to see what changed. Data from Congress.gov.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 29, 2025
Mr. Moylan (for himself, Mr. Case, Ms. King-Hinds, Mrs. Radewagen, and Mr. Torres of New York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To amend title 46, United States Code, to provide for a waiver of navigation or vessel-inspection laws in noncontiguous areas upon a declaration of a major disaster or emergency, 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 “Noncontiguous Disaster Shipping Act”.
SEC. 2. WAIVER IN A NONCONTIGUOUS AREA.
Section 501 of title 46, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as subsections
(d) and (e), respectively; and
(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following new subsection:
“(c) In a Noncontiguous Area.—
“(1) In general.—Upon a declaration by the President pursuant to section 401 or 501 the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170; 5191) that a major disaster or emergency exists in a noncontiguous area of the United States, the head of an agency responsible for the administration of the navigation or vessel-inspection laws shall waive compliance with such laws for a vessel transporting cargo to or from the noncontiguous area affected by such major disaster or emergency for the purpose of disaster relief.
“(2) Duration of waiver.—
“(A) In general.—Subject to subparagraphs (B) and
(C), a waiver issued under this subsection shall be for a period of not more than 10 days.
“(B) Waiver extension.—Upon the termination of a waiver issued under this subsection, the head of the agency referred to in paragraph (1), in consultation with the Governor of the noncontiguous area affected by such major disaster or emergency, may extend the waiver for an additional period of not more than 10 days.
“(C) Aggregate duration.—The aggregate duration of the period of all waivers and extensions of waivers under this subsection with respect to any one major disaster or emergency shall not exceed 45 days.
“(3) Notice to congress.—
“(A) In general.—The head of the agency referred to in paragraph (1) shall notify the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate of the issuance of any waiver of the navigation or vessel- inspection laws under this subsection not later than 48 hours after such issuance.
“(B) Notification required for extensions.—For the purposes of this paragraph, an extension issued under paragraph (2)(B) shall be treated in the same manner as a waiver issued under this subsection.
“(4) Noncontiguous area of the united states defined.—For the purposes of this subsection, the term ‘noncontiguous area of the United States’ means Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska.”. <all>
Comments