Bill Passed in the House on Sexual Assault In the Coast Guard; on Cruise Ships

(Cross-posted at SAFER’s blog, Change Happens )

The government works in mysterious ways. For example, you wouldn’t think that the Coast Guard Authorization Bill of 2010 has a whole lot to do with sexual assault. But you, like me, would be oddly wrong.

The bill, HR 3619, was passed in the House on October 23 (votes: 385 to 11), and is now on the Senate’s legislative calendar. The bill authorizes the Coast Guard’s $10 billion 2010 (fiscal year) budget, and two thirds of the budget will reportedly go to “financ[ing] core missions such as searches and rescues, combating drug smugglers and defending the U.S. coast against terrorists.” The bill also “increases Coast Guard personnel by 1,500 positions to a force of 47,000.”

But there is another story here :

The bill would push the 125 to 150 cruise ships that enter U.S. ports to do a better job of preventing or responding to sexual assaults on passengers. Cruise operators would be required to report alleged crimes to the FBI and Coast Guard, publish crime data online, establish procedures to assist victims and have at least one crew member trained to investigate crime scenes.

Interesting, right?! It gets better: there are actually two parts of the bill that deal directly with sexual assault. The first is in sec. 219 which refers to sexual assaults involving members of the Coast Guard—the bill would require that (much like the Clery Act requires of colleges and universities) each year the Coast Guard submit a report to a number of congressional committees on the number of sexual assaults committed by and against CG members; the disciplinary actions that were taken; and a plan for prevention and response activities that will occur in the following year.

Title IX of the bill, (sec. 901 to 904), referred to as the “Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009,” covers the cruise ship requirements quoted above. This section starts off with the following findings (emphasis mine):

(2) In 2007 alone, approximately 12,000,000 passengers were projected to take a cruise worldwide.

(3) Passengers on cruise vessels have an inadequate appreciation of their potential vulnerability to crime while on ocean voyages, and those who may be victimized lack the information they need to understand their legal rights or to know whom to contact for help in the immediate aftermath of the crime.

(4) Sexual violence, the disappearance of passengers from vessels on the high seas, and other serious crimes have occurred during luxury cruises.

(5) Over the last 5 years, sexual assault and physical assaults on cruise vessels were the leading crimes investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with regard to cruise vessel incidents.

(6) These crimes at sea can involve attacks both by passengers and crew members on other passengers and crew members.

(7) Except for United States flagged vessels, or foreign flagged vessels operating in an area subject to the direct jurisdiction of the United States, there are no Federal statutes or regulations that explicitly require cruise lines to report alleged crimes to United States Government officials.

(8) It is not known precisely how often crimes occur on cruise vessels or exactly how many people have disappeared during ocean voyages because cruise line companies do not make comprehensive, crime-related data readily available to the public.

I suppose it’s not shocking that assault is a commonly-investigated crime on cruise ships, (now that I think about it, it’s kind of like being in a college dorm) but it’s certainly not something I’ve considered much and it’s pretty refreshing to see that our government is attempting to do something about it. On top of requirements about reporting and having medical staff equipped to treat survivors of assault, the bill requires that the medical staff maintain confidentiality and that people who have been assaulted have access to confidential phone and internet service to contact law enforcement, legal, or counseling services. AND ships will be required to have on hand “in-date supplies of anti-retroviral medications and other medications designed to prevent sexually transmitted diseases after a sexual assault.”

So three cheers for the House of Reps, this is way cool! I wonder if some folks in the Senate are going to find this to be “politically motivated ” as well….

The relevant text of the bill can be found here and the full bill can be found here .

[One more quick note: the bill also establishes a minority recruiting program for the Coast Guard, including a procedure for congressional nominations to increase the amount of racial and geographic diversity at the Coast Guard’s academy; the academy currently serves 1000 cadets, only 25 of whom are black.]