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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 181 / Wednesday, September 22, 2021 / Proposed Rules
Various maritime interests recommended that the Coast Guard update its certification guidelines so that States that have adopted laws compliant with UCOTAV can meet the certification guidelines. In 2014, the National Boating Safety Advisory Council NBSAC, a group established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to advise the Coast Guard, passed Resolution No. 20149201
recommending that the Coast Guard initiate a rulemaking to revise subpart D
based on UCOTAV, for the following reasons:
1 The well-conceived and welldrafted nature of UCOTAV;
2 The lack of State support for current subpart D;
3 The interest in complying with a revised subpart D to obtain the benefits of preferred mortgages;
4 Theft deterrence by facilitating interstate recovery of stolen vessels; and 5 Facilitation of greater participation in the VIS.8
In addition, NASBLA recommended the incorporation of UCOTAV
provisions as well. In response to an agency solicitation for regulatory reform proposals pursuant to Executive Order 13777 Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,9 NASBLA recommended that the Coast Guard revise subpart D to align Coast Guard certification requirements with the requirements of UCOTAV. NASBLA noted that the current subpart D regulations have become obsolete, fostered inefficiencies, and/or have become increasingly difficult to consistently apply. 10
Based on the recommendations of these two organizations, as well as our desire to increase State participation in the VIS, the Coast Guard is proposing revisions to subpart D to allow for any State adopting titling laws in accordance with the guidelines in UCOTAV to meet Coast Guard certification requirements. We discuss information made available by States. See NBSAC
Resolution 20149201 https homeport.uscg.mil/
Lists/Content/DispForm.aspx?ID=483&Source=/
Lists/Content/DispForm.aspx?ID=483.
8 See 46 U.S.C. chapter 125, Vessel Identification System. Subsection a of section 12501 requires the Secretary of DHS to establish a system of information concerning vessels of the United States for law enforcement and other purposes. The Secretary is required to make available information from the system relating to the ownership of vessels documented under chapter 121 of title 46, numbered under chapter 123 of that title, and titled under the law of a State. See https cgmix.uscg.mil/
VISInformation.aspx?VISOption for more information regarding VIS.
9 Executive Order 13777 was revoked by Executive Order 13992 Volume 86 of the Federal Register FR at Page 7049 Jan. 25, 2021.
10 Comment from NASBLA, available at https
www.regulations.gov, docket number USCG2017
04800149.

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the specific proposed requirements for subpart D below.
V. Discussion of Proposed Rule For the reasons described above, this proposed rulemaking would revise subpart D of 33 CFR part 187 so that State titling laws modeled on UCOTA
V would meet the certification requirements of subpart D. We propose to replace the entire text of the existing subpart D with new guidelines that would accommodate States that adopt variants of the model code appropriate for their State commercial legal regimes.
The Coast Guard is not proposing to incorporate UCOTAV in its entirety because some sections of UCOTAV are not applicable to the Federal Government. For example, included in UCOTAV is a savings clause provision see section 28 of UCOTAV.
Because the execution of the savings clause would be governed by State law applicable to vessel titling that existed prior to the adoption of UCOTAV,11
there is no Federal interest or need to apply Federal oversight of the application of a savings clause.
In short, so long as vessels have been properly registered through the State, the savings clause provision found in section 28 of UCOTAV has no bearing on the Coast Guards regulatory regime.
Therefore, we are not including UCOTAVs savings clause provision within this proposal. Instead, we are proposing certification guidelines that incorporate UCOTAV, but with a number of policy or stylistic changes, such that the guidelines are flexible enough to allow for the variations in State law permitted by UCOTAV.
In addition to the savings clause provision in section 28, the Coast Guard is proposing to omit the following sections of UCOTAV that do not bear specifically on titling concerns.
Section 1, Short title. We are integrating the requirements of UCOTA
V into Coast Guard regulations, so we do not need to adopt the acts title.
Section 4, Supplemental principles of law and equity. This provision concerns the interpretation principles of UCOTA
V and, while this is a general principle of the UCC, it is not needed for Coast Guard certification of a States titling law.
Section 8, Creation and cancellation of certificate of title, subsection f. We are not incorporating subsection f of 11 See the explanation contained in the table on page 57 of UCOTAV which says: States will decide under existing state law how they will treat vessels that were previously titled under state law prior to adoption of UCOTAV. Thus, previously existing state requirements do not bear on the titling issues that this proposal seeks to address.

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section 8 because it is an optional provision for the States that provides a procedure for the office to follow before canceling a certificate of title. It is intended for those states whose public records or other law does not already provide a procedure that ensures all interested parties are notified in advance and given an opportunity to be heard. 12
Section 26, Uniformity of application and construction. This provision also concerns interpretation principles and is not needed for Coast Guard certification.
Section 27, Relation to electronic signatures in global and national commerce act. This section describes the relation of a States law to certain Federal statutes concerning electronic signature, which is not relevant in the certification of State titling law.
Section 28, Savings clause. For the reasons discussed above, the Coast Guard is not incorporating section 28.
The Coast Guard also proposes a variety of stylistic changes. First, we propose keeping the general numbering scheme of the text of UCOTAV in regulatory text, replacing references to Section X with the appropriate citation to the equivalent regulatory section, subsection, or paragraph. We would also replace certain words such as shall with must, as provided by the Federal Plain Language Guidelines.13 Additionally, we would replace references to the UCC or specific sections of the UCC with references to State law.
We provide a section-by-section discussion of the proposed certification guidelines below.
Section 187.7, What are the definitions of terms used in this part?
We propose to rename this section Definitions. We propose to use most of the existing definitions within Section 187.7 and add new definitions from section 2 of UCOTAV. If a definition from UCOTAV differs from an existing regulatory definition for example, the term documented vessel in UCOTA
V differs from the current definition in 187.7, we would use the definition from UCOTAV.
The definitions from UCOTAV that we propose adding are as follows:
Barge;
Builders certificate;
Buyer;
Cancel;
Certificate of title;
12 UCOTAV,
Section 8, Legislative Note, page
25.
13 See Federal Plain Language Guidelines, Rev. 1, May 2011 on p. 25. These can be accessed at https www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines.

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