§53207 National Security Requirements

Summary

When a contractor signs an Operating Agreement, the Secretary must also require the contractor to sign a Contingency Agreement with the Operating Agency. The Operating Agency must negotiate and sign that Contingency Agreement as soon as reasonably possible after the Operating Agreement is signed. The Contingency Agreement must make the contractor’s vessel and all resources needed to perform Cable Services available to the Operating Agency when asked. The Operating Agency sets the basic terms, but it and the contractor can add or change terms if needed. If the vessel works in areas the Coast Guard calls high-risk for piracy, it must have appropriate non‑lethal defenses chosen jointly by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the department where the Coast Guard operates. The contractor does not have to keep the Contingency Agreement after the Operating Agreement ends, except as noted in section 53205(d). “Resources” include equipment, people, supplies, management, and other services the Operating Agency needs. The Operating Agency must pay fair and reasonable compensation at the rate in the Contingency Agreement, from the moment the vessel is needed until it can go back to commercial work, and that pay is separate from amounts under section 53206. The Government is not responsible for a contractor’s lost business or other indirect damages from using the Contingency Agreement, and a contractor can defend itself in breach-of-contract suits by showing the breach was mainly caused by carrying out the Contingency Agreement, while still having to try to minimize damages.