Fishing guides would no longer be required to obtain a Transportation Worker Identification Card under a bill waiting to be signed into law by President Obama, according to the office of U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn.
Under current law, any boat operator who obtains a U.S. Coast Guard certification to transport passengers must obtain a TWIC card. To obtain the card, guides are required to pay a $132 application fee and make two trips to a Coast Guard licensing center.
Fishing guide Tom Neustrom of Grand Rapids, who has followed the Coast Guard licensing issue closely, says the TWIC requirement should be dropped.
"I think it's a good amendment if he's going to get it done," Neustrom said. "Inland guides shouldn't have to get a TWIC card. Our vessels don't have any room to harbor people, and that's where the TWIC card originated from."
Oberstar agrees.
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"The TWIC is meant to secure our ports by identifying those who should have access to secure maritime facilities and vessels," Oberstar said in a prepared statement. "It was never intended to regulate a fishing guide taking out a customer in his 16-foot Lund."
Oberstar is the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the chief author of the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act, which authorizes all of the key operations of the agency. He included language in the bill that will exempt fishing guides and other small boat operators from the TWIC requirement.
Earlier this year, Oberstar worked with Coast Guard officials to redesign the licensing requirements for Minnesota fishing guides and small boat operators. This will include a more relevant test that will focus on safety issues germane to fishing guides and small boat operators.
