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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 167 / Wednesday, September 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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TABLE 2SUMMARY OF PROPOSED CHANGES TO 46 CFR 11.201 AND PROPOSED IMPACTSContinued Section
Proposed changes in regulatory text
Description of change
Impact
11.201h3ivB

B To increase in scope to Great Lakes, near-coastal or oceans, the applicant will be required to complete the firefighting course appropriate to the route sought.

This proposed change is a rewording of existing 11.201h4 to make the text of 11.201h easier to read.

11.201l

l Restrictions. The Coast Guard may modify the service, training, and examination requirements in this part to satisfy the unique qualification requirements of an applicant or distinct group of mariners. The Coast Guard may also lower the age requirement for OUPV applicants. The authority granted by an officer endorsement will be restricted to reflect any modifications made under the authority of this paragraph.

The addition of the word training in this paragraph would allow the Coast Guard to modify the training requirements based on the unique qualification requirements of a group of mariners, which we have not previously done.

While this new clause is a restatement of the requirements currently existing in 11.201h4, there could be a cost impact because mariners could apply for an endorsement for inland waters or Western Rivers with a modified basic inland waters and Western Rivers towing vessel firefighting course approved under 11.201h3ivA, and later request an increase in scope requiring the mariner to complete an additional basic firefighting course. Because the mariner would need to take the basic firefighting course, they would spend approximately $553.38 on the tuition for the course.
Additionally, they would spend 16 hours taking the course, and the travel time to get to and from the course. However, the Coast Guard cannot forecast who would seek an increase in scope or how frequently this would occur.
Without the addition of the word training, the Coast Guard would not be able to modify training requirements for specific groups of mariners based on their unique qualifications and the cost savings proposed here would not be attainable. The addition also permits the Coast Guard, in the future, to modify training requirements for other specific groups of mariners. We do not intend to modify other training requirements at this time. As such, we do not estimate any costs or cost savings from this proposed change.

This proposed rule would have two affected populations: 1 Course providers who would offer a modified basic firefighting course; and 2
applicants for MMC endorsements as a master of towing vessels limited or mate pilot of towing vessels on inland waters or Western Rivers routes. We first estimated the number of course providers who may submit a modified basic firefighting course to the Coast Guard for approval, and then estimated the number of applicants who may apply for an endorsement as master of towing vessels limited or mate pilot of towing vessels operating on inland waters or Western Rivers.
The Coast Guard does not know how many course providers would request approval for a modified basic firefighting course. However, since this course would be a modified form of the basic firefighting course, we assume that only course providers who already teach a firefighting course would take advantage of the opportunity provided by this proposal. Currently, there are 91
course providers approved to offer a basic firefighting course.15 Historically,
the number of course providers does not significantly change on an annual basis.
Therefore, we expect that the course providers who would offer a modified firefighting course would be from these 91 course providers.
A subject matter expert SME from the Coast Guards Office of Merchant Mariner Credentialing with extensive experience involving regular contact with maritime course providers and towing vessel operating companies reviewed publicly available materials from these 91 providers and rated each on how likely they would be to request approval of a modified basic firefighting course. Our SME considered the types of courses offered by each provider, their facilities, geographic locations, and the segment of the industry their clientele work in. The SME rated each course provider as either 0 percent, 25
percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, or 100
percent likely to request approval of a modified basic firefighting course.
Across the 91 course providers with an approved basic firefighting course, we rated 56 of them as having no likelihood of requesting approval to offer a modified firefighting course because our SMEs review indicated that they are
15 https www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/NMC/pdfs/
courses/courses.pdf lists all courses approved by
the Coast Guard. There are 91 course providers approved to offer basic firefighting courses.

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unlikely to serve the inland towing population. Our SME estimates that 35
providers would request course approval of a modified firefighting course. Among these 35 providers, our SME estimates that the average likelihood to request approval to offer a modified basic firefighting course would be 65 percent. Multiplying 35 by 65
percent yields 23, rounded, or our estimate for the number of training providers likely to offer a modified firefighting course.
The Coast Guard requests comments on our estimate of 23 course providers who may request Coast Guard approval of a modified basic firefighting course or any additional data that we could use to inform and refine our estimate.
Applicants for a national officer endorsement as master of towing vessels limited or mate pilot of towing vessels on inland water or Western Rivers who take a modified course would realize a cost savings by taking a shorter, less expensive firefighting course. As discussed in section IV of this preamble, the Coast Guard issued a final rule in 2013 requiring mariners seeking national officer endorsements as master or mate pilot of towing vessels on routes other than oceans to complete a Coast Guard-approved basic
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