Je veux savoir à propos de…

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 167 / Wednesday, September 1, 2021 / Proposed Rules
48933

TABLE 3ESTIMATED NUMBER OF NEW GREAT LAKES, WESTERN RIVERS, AND/OR INLAND WATERS MATE PILOT AND
MASTERS LIMITED ENDORSEMENTS ISSUED PER YEAR
Mate pilot applicants
Year
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Average

615
512
372
300
128
450

Masters limited with no mate pilot endorsement 19
17
10
6 2
13

khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with PROPOSALS

Numbers may not add due to rounding, and 2020 numbers are not included in the average.

As seen in Table 3, the number of individuals applying for an endorsement as mate pilot of towing vessels has been declining. The Coast Guard does not know specifically why fewer individuals have applied for an endorsement as mate pilot of towing vessels. It may be associated with grandfathering provisions provided in the 2013 final rule, which established grandfathering provisions for master and mate pilots of towing vessels. The 2013 final rule may have caused applicants for master of towing vessels limited and mate pilot of towing vessels endorsements to seek an MMC
earlier than they may have otherwise in order to be grandfathered under the existing regulations. Additionally, the introduction of 46 CFR subchapter M in 2016 may have led to a contraction in the industry. In either case, the Coast Guard believes carrying forward the current decline has been more severe than fundamentals would suggest, so we expect the number of applicants to level off. The Coast Guard therefore utilizes the four-year average of the number of new towing vessel mate applicants, 450, and the four-year average of the number of limited masters, 13, to estimate that 463 mariners that apply to the Coast Guard to be endorsed to operate on the Great Lakes, Western rivers, or inland waters each year. We request comment on this methodology and how many applicants might seek an inland towing mate or limited master endorsement in the coming years.
Applying the percentage of vessels that do not operate on the Great Lakes 95 percent to the estimated 463 annual new endorsements yields an estimated 440 new endorsements as mate pilot of towing vessels or master of towing vessels limited operating in inland waters or Western Rivers per year, rounded.21
21 463

multiplied by 0.95 equals 440, rounded.

VerDate Sep<11>2014

16:23 Aug 31, 2021

Jkt 253001

Costs The modified basic firefighting course for towing vessels on inland waters and Western Rivers would be a modified version of the basic firefighting course.
Mariners are required to take a firefighting course, and this proposed rule would permit some mariners to take the modified basic firefighting course in lieu of the longer basic firefighting course. As such, this rule presents no additional costs to mariners who will continue to operate on inland waters and Western Rivers.
Before mariners could save hours spent in training and the tuition for a basic firefighting course by taking a modified basic firefighting course, course providers would first need to obtain Coast Guard approval for the modified basic firefighting course.
Course providers submit course approval requests to the NMC in accordance with the requirements of 46
CFR part 10, subpart D. The NMC would then evaluate the course to ensure the content demonstrates comprehensive coverage of the firefighting knowledge and competency requirements of the training. If the course submission does not require edits or revisions, and is approved as submitted, the Coast Guard estimates that it would take a training specialist at a course provider 6 hours to develop and submit a request for course approval of a modified basic firefighting course.22 We used the Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS
Occupational Employment Statistics National-Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates for May 2020 Training and Development Specialists category to estimate the wages for the employees who would prepare and submit the course for Coast Guard approval, as 22 Information provided by an SME from the Coast Guards NMC. We request comment on how long it would take to develop and submit the course approvals, and what wages those who develop the course approval would be paid.

PO 00000

Frm 00016

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

these employees design and conduct training and development programs to improve individual and organization performance. 23 The BLS estimates a training and development specialists mean hourly wages at $32.43. We then applied a load factor to account for nonwage compensation and benefits, resulting in a fully loaded hourly wage of $45.40.24
If the submission does not require a request for additional information to supplement the course approval request, the Coast Guard estimates that a Federal government employee, at a grade level of a GS7, would take 1 hour to process the receipt of the course approval submission. One Federal employee, at a grade level of a GS13, would spend 4
hours evaluating the course approval request; another Federal employee, at a grade level of GS13, would spend 0.5
hours reviewing the course; and a fourth Federal employee, also at a grade level of GS13, would spend 0.5 hours conducting a final review of the course.
In total, the Coast Guard would spend 1 hour of GS7 time and 5 hours of GS
13 time per course approval request, if the submission does not require a 23 https www.bls.gov/oes/2020/may/
oes131151.htm.
24 Data on the employer cost of compensation was sourced from the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation one screen data search. We searched for both the total compensation and the wages and salaries of private industry workers in the Educational Services Industry yielding BLS
series CMU2016100000000D for total compensation and series CMU2026100000000D for wages. To derive the cost of compensation per hour worked, the Coast Guard first took the average of the four quarters of total compensation or $47.34 and the average of the four quarters of wages and salaries of $33.92, rounded. We then divided the total compensation amount of $47.34 by the wage and salary amount of $33.92 to obtain the load factor of about 1.4 for Educational Services occupations, rounded 47.34 divided by 33.92 equals 1.4, rounded. To load the wage, the Coast Guard multiplied the estimated hourly wage of $32.43 by the loaded wage factor of 1.4 yielding $45.40, rounded, which accounts for the total cost of compensation per hour of work 32.43 multiplied by 1.4 equals 45.40.

E:FRFM01SEP1.SGM

01SEP1