HR-3331 : Still Just a Bill

The Mariner Exam Modernization Act aims to update and modernize the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination administered by the Coast Guard. Key provisions of this bill include:

• Enhanced Working Group:
  • Requires the establishment of a working group within 180 days of the Act's enactment to review the questions, content, and relevancy of the examination.
  • Expands the working group to include at least two individuals who have taken and passed the examination within the last five years.
  • Mandates the Commandant to convene the working group annually or when new examination questions are created, allowing for remote participation.
  • Stipulates that the Commandant may not use new examination questions until they have been reviewed and approved by the working group.
• Comprehensive Review:
  • Requires the Commandant to conduct a review, within 270 days of the Act's enactment, considering industry standards, practices, technology, the relevancy of examination topics and contents, and any redundancy in core competencies.
  • A report with findings and recommendations for updates to the examination must be provided to the Commandant upon completion of this review.
• Modernization Plan:
  • Mandates the Commandant to develop a plan, within 270 days after completing the review, to update and modernize the examination and implement the recommendations.
  • This plan must address:
    • Eliminating or updating outdated topics, content, core competencies, or questions.
    • Modernizing testing procedures to align with contemporary standardized testing administration and evaluation.
    • Developing methods to collect examination data on pass and fail rates for future analysis.
  • The plan must be developed in consultation with the working group and experts in modern standardized testing practices.
• Congressional Briefing: Requires the Coast Guard to brief the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation within one year of the Act's enactment on the review and modernization plan.