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Boarding and inspection of vessels; arrest; execution of warrants or other process

(m) Anyone authorized by the President to enforce the provisions of this section may, except as to public vessels, (A) board and inspect any vessel upon the navigable waters of the United States or the waters of the contiguous zone, (B) with or without a warrant arrest any person who violates the provisions of this section or any regulation issued thereunder in his presence or view, and (C) execute any warrant or other process issued by an officer or court of competent jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction

(n) The several district courts of the United States are invested with jurisdiction for any actions, other than actions pursuant to subsection (i) (1) of this section, arising under this section. In the case of Guam and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, such actions may be brought in the district court of Guam, and in the case of the Virgin Islands such actions may be brought in the district court of the Virgin Islands. In the case of American Samoa and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, such actions may be brought in the District Court of the United States for the District of Hawaii and such court shall have jurisdiction of such actions. In the case of the Canal Zone, such actions may be brought in the United States District Court for the District of the Canal Zone.

Obligation for damages unaffected; local authority not preempted; existing Federal authority not modified or affected

(0) (1) Nothing in this section shall affect or modify in any way the obligations of any owner or operator of any vessel, or of any owner or operator of any onshore facility or offshore facility to any person or agency under any provision of law for damages to any publicly owned or privately owned property resulting from a discharge of any oil or hazardous substance or from the removal of any such oil or hazardous substance.

(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed as preempting any State or political subdivision thereof from imposing any requirement or liability with respect to the discharge of oil or hazardous substance into any waters within such State.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting or modifying any other existing authority of any Federal department, agency, or instrumentality, relative to onshore or offshore facilities under this chapter or any other provision of law, or to affect any State or local law not in conflict with this section.

Financial responsibility

(p) (1) Any vessel over three hundred gross tons, including any barge of equivalent size, but not including any barge that is not self-propelled and that does not carry oil or hazardous substances as cargo or fuel, using any port or place in the United Sates or the navigable waters of the United States for any purpose shall establish and maintain under regulations to be prescribed from time to time by the President, evidence of financial responsibility of $100 per gross ton, or $14,000,000 whichever is the lesser, to

meet the liability to the United States which such vessel could be subjected under this section. In cases where an owner or operator owns, operates, or charters more than one such vessel, financial responsibility need only be established to meet the maximum liability to which the largest of such vessels could be subjected. Financial responsibility may be established by any one of, or a combination of, the following methods acceptable to the President: (A) evidence of insurance, (B) surety bonds, (C) qualification as a self-insurer, or (D) other evidence of financial responsibility. Any bond filed shall be issued by a bonding company authorized to do business in the United States.

(2) The provisions of paragraph (1) of this subsection shall be effective April 3, 1971, with respect to oil and one year after October 18, 1972, with respect to hazardous substances. The President shall delegate the responsibility to carry out the provisions of this subsection to the appropriate agency head within sixty days after October 18, 1972. Regulations necessary to implement this subsection shall be issued within six months after October 18, 1972.

(3) Any claim for costs incurred by such vessel may be brought directly against the insurer or any other person providing evidence of financial responsibility as required under this subsection. In the case of any action pursuant to this subsection such insurer or other person shall be entitled to invoke all rights and defenses which would have been available to the owner or operator if an action had been brought against him by the claimant, and which would have been available to him if an action had been brought against him by the owner or operator.

(4) Any owner or operator of a vessel subject to this subsection, who fails to comply with the provisions of this subsection or any regulation issued thereunder, shall be subject to a fine of not more than $10,000.

(5) The Secretary of the Treasury may refuse the clearance required by section 91 of Title 46 to any vessel subject to this subsection, which does not have evidence furnished by the President that the financial responsibility provisions of paragraph (1) of this subsection have been complied with.

(6) The Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operated may (A) deny entry to any port or place in the United States or the navigable waters of the United States, to, and (B) detain at the port or place in the United States from which it is about to depart for any other port or place in the United States, any vessel subject to this subsection, which upon request, does not produce evidence furnished by the President that the financial responsibility provisions of paragraph (1) of this subsection have been complied with.

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TITLE 46

UNITED STATES CODE

Chapter 1.-ADMINISTRATION OF SHIPPING LAWS

Superintendence of commercial marine and seamen; documentation.
Measurement and numbering; tonnage tax.

Annual list of vessels; report of increase; report on navigation laws.
Penalties under laws relating to vessels; informers' rights; manner of
ascertaining facts.

Refunding of penalties under laws relating to vessels or seamen.

46 § 2. Superintendence of commercial marine and seamen; documentation

The Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Commissioner of Customs shall have general superintendence of the commercial marine and merchant seamen of the United States, so far as vessels and seamen are not, under existing laws, subject to the supervision of any other officer of the Government. The Commissioner of Customs shall be specially charged with the decision of all questions relating to the issue of registers, enrollments, and licenses of vessels, and to the filing and preserving of those documents; and wherever in this title any of the above-named documents are required to be surrendered they shall be surrendered and returned to the Commissioner of Customs.1

46 3. Measurement and numbering; tonnage tax

The Commissioner of Customs shall be charged with the supervision of the laws relating to the admeasurement of vessels, and the assigning of signal letters thereto, and of designating their official number; and on all questions of interpretation growing out of the execution of the laws relating to these subjects, and relating to the collection of tonnage tax, and to the refund of such tax when collected erroneously or illegally, his decision shall be final.2

46 § 4. Annual list of vessels; report of increase; report on navigation laws

The Commissioner of Customs shall annually prepare and publish a list of vessels of the United States belonging to the commercial marine, specifying the official number, signal letters, names, rig, tonnage, home port, and place and date of building of

1 Functions of the Commissioner in the second sentence have been transferred to the Commandant, USCG.

2 Functions of the Commissioner were transferred to the Commandant, USCG, except for those relating to the collection of tonnage tax.

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every vessel, distinguishing in such list sailing vessels from such as may be propelled by steam or other motive power. He shall also report annually to the Secretary of the Treasury the increase of vessels of the United States, by building or otherwise, specifying their number, rig, and motive power. The Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Commissioner of Customs shall also investigate the operations of the laws relative to navigation, and annually report to the Secretary of the Treasury such particulars as may, in their individual judgment, admit of improvement or may require amendment.1

46 § 7. Penalties under laws relating to vessels; informers' rights; manner of ascertaining facts

The Commandant of the Coast Guard or the Commissioner of Customs, as the case may be, may, upon application therefor, remit or mitigate any fine, penalty, or forfeiture provided for in laws relating to vessels or discontinue any prosecution to recover penalties or relating to forfeitures denounced in such laws, excepting the penalty of imprisonment, or of removal from office, upon such terms as he, in his discretion, shall think proper; and all rights granted to informers by such laws shall be held subject to the Commandant's or Commissioner's powers of remission, except in cases where the claims of any informer to the share of any penalty shall have been determined by a court of competent jurisdiction prior to the application for the remission of the penalty or forfeiture; and the Commandant or Commissioner shall have authority to ascertain the facts upon all such applications in such manner and under such regulations as he may deem proper.

46 § 8. Refunding of penalties under laws relating to vessels or

seamen

Whenever any fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or charge arising under the laws relating to vessels or seamen has been paid to any collector of customs, or Coast Guard official, or consular officer, and application has been made within one year from such payment for the refunding or remission of the same, the Commandant of the Coast Guard or the Commissioner of Customs, as the case may be, if on investigation he finds that such fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or charge was illegally, improperly, or excessively imposed, shall have the power, either before or after the same has been covered into the Treasury, to refund so much of such fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or charge as he may think proper, from any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

1 Functions of the Commissioner were transferred to the Commandant, USCG. Reports are made to the Secretary of Transportation.

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