Protecting Access to American Products Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1640 To establish a process for waiver of coastwise endorsement requirements. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 13, 2021 Mr. LEE introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To establish a process for waiver of coastwise endorsement requirements. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Access to 4 American Products Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. WAIVER OF COASTWISE ENDORSEMENT REQUIRE- 6 MENTS. 7 Section 12112 of title 46, United States Code, is 8 amended by adding at the end the following: 9 ‘‘(c) WAIVERS IN CASES OF PRODUCT CARRIER 10 SCARCITY OR UNAVAILABILITY.— 11 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:28 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1640.IS S1640 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1640 IS ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The head of an agency 1 shall, upon request, temporarily waive the require- 2 ments of subsection (a), including the requirement 3 to satisfy section 12103, if the person requesting 4 that waiver reasonably demonstrates to the head of 5 an agency that— 6 ‘‘(A) there is no product carrier, with re- 7 spect to a specified good, that meets such re- 8 quirements, exists, and is available to carry 9 such good; and 10 ‘‘(B) the person made a good faith effort 11 to locate a product carrier that complies with 12 such requirements. 13 ‘‘(2) DURATION.—Any waiver issued under 14 paragraph (1) shall be limited in duration, and shall 15 expire by a specified date that is not less than 30 16 days after the date on which the waiver is issued. 17 ‘‘(3) EXTENSION.—Upon request, if the cir- 18 cumstances under which a waiver was issued under 19 paragraph (1) have not substantially changed, the 20 head of an agency shall, without delay, grant one or 21 more extensions to a waiver issued under paragraph 22 (1), for periods of not less than 15 days each. 23 ‘‘(4) DEADLINE FOR WAIVER RESPONSE.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:28 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1640.IS S1640 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1640 IS ‘‘(A) RESPONSE DEADLINE.—Not later 1 than 60 days after receiving a request for a 2 waiver under paragraph (1), the head of an 3 agency shall approve or deny such request. 4 ‘‘(B) FINDINGS IN SUPPORT OF DENIED 5 WAIVER.—If the head of an agency denies such 6 a request, the head of an agency shall, not later 7 than 14 days after denying the request, submit 8 to the requester a report that includes the find- 9 ings that served as the basis for denying the re- 10 quest. 11 ‘‘(C) REQUEST DEEMED GRANTED.—If the 12 head of an agency has neither granted nor de- 13 nied the request before the response deadline 14 described in subparagraph (A), the request 15 shall be deemed granted on the date that is 61 16 days after the date on which the head of an 17 agency received the request. A waiver that is 18 deemed granted under this subparagraph shall 19 be valid for a period of 30 days. 20 ‘‘(5) NOTICE TO CONGRESS.— 21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The head of an agen- 22 cy shall notify Congress— 23 ‘‘(i) of any request for a temporary 24 waiver under this subsection, not later 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:28 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1640.IS S1640 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1640 IS than 48 hours after receiving such request; 1 and 2 ‘‘(ii) of the issuance of any such waiv- 3 er, not later than 48 hours after such 4 issuance. 5 ‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The head of an agency 6 shall include in each notification under subpara- 7 graph (A)(ii) a detailed explanation of the rea- 8 sons the waiver is necessary. 9 ‘‘(6) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 10 ‘‘(A) PRODUCT CARRIER.—The term ‘prod- 11 uct carrier’, with respect to a good, means a 12 vessel constructed or adapted primarily to carry 13 such good in bulk in the cargo spaces. 14 ‘‘(B) HEAD OF AN AGENCY.—The term 15 ‘head of an agency’ means an individual, or 16 such individual acting in that capacity, who is 17 responsible for the administration of the naviga- 18 tion or vessel inspection laws.’’. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:28 May 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1640.IS S1640 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS