PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

The Secretary does not have to make merchant mariner exam questions, the answers, or data about those questions (like how often they are used or how often people get them right) available to the public. The Secretary may, if it helps the public study, release questions and answers that have been taken out of use or are otherwise okay to share. A "merchant mariner credential" means a license, certificate, or document the Secretary is allowed to issue under this title. The Commandant must set up a working group within 180 days after the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 becomes law, and then every two years after that, to review exam questions and content. The group must include: 1 Coast Guard subject matter expert; representatives split half from approved training facilities and half from the maritime industry; at least 1 member from the National Merchant Marine Personnel Advisory Committee; at least 2 State maritime academy reps (one for deck training and one for engineer training); at least 2 people who passed the exam in the prior 5 years; at least 1 United States Merchant Marine Academy rep; appropriate reps from other Coast Guard advisory committees; at least 1 Maritime Administration expert; and at least 1 human performance technology rep. The group must include people who know the type of exam being reviewed. The Commandant must meet with the group at least once a year or when new questions are created, and members may join remotely if needed. New exam questions cannot be used until the working group reviews and approves them. Within 270 days after the Act becomes law, the group must finish a baseline review covering industry standards, question and reference accuracy and availability, exam length, topic relevance, overlap with STCW competencies, and use of technology, then give the Commandant a report with findings and recommended updates. All working group members must sign nondisclosure agreements. Members who are not Federal employees are not Federal employees for pay or hire purposes but will be treated as special government employees under 18 U.S.C. 202(a) for sections 203, 205, 207, 208, and 209 and must follow the department’s conduct rules. Chapter 10 of title 5 does not apply to this working group.

Title 46, §7510

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(a)Disclosure Not Required.—

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary is not required to disclose to the public—

(1)a question from any examination for a merchant mariner credential;

(2)the answer to such a question, including any correct or incorrect answer that may be presented with such question; and

(3)any quality or characteristic of such a question, including—

(A)the manner in which such question has been, is, or may be selected for an examination;

(B)the frequency of such selection; and

(C)the frequency that an examinee correctly or incorrectly answered such question.

(b)Exception for Certain Questions.—

Notwithstanding subsection (a), the Secretary may, for the purpose of preparation by the general public for examinations required for merchant mariner credentials, release an examination question and answer that the Secretary has retired or is not presently on or part of an examination, or that the Secretary determines is appropriate for release.

(c)Working group.—

(1)In general.—

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025, and once every two years thereafter, the Commandant shall commission a working group to review questions, content, and relevancy of examinations required for merchant mariner credentials, composed of— (A)

(B)representatives from training facilities and the maritime industry, of whom—

(i)one-half shall be representatives from approved training facilities; and

(ii)one-half shall be representatives from the appropriate maritime industry;

(C)at least 1 representative from the National Merchant Marine Personnel Advisory Committee;

(D)at least 2 representatives from the State maritime academies, of whom one shall be a representative from the deck training track and one shall be a representative of the engineer license track;

(E)at least 2 individuals that have taken and passed the examination in the 5 years before the commissioning of the working group;

(F)at least 1 representative from the United States Merchant Marine Academy;

(G)representatives from other Coast Guard Federal advisory committees, as appropriate, for the industry segment associated with the subject examinations;

(H)at least 1 subject matter expert from the Maritime Administration; and

(I)at least 1 human performance technology representative.

(2)Inclusion of persons knowledgeable about examination type.—

The working group shall include representatives knowledgeable about the examination type under review.

(3)Meeting of working group.—

(A)In general.—

The Commandant shall convene the working group annually or at the creation of new examination questions, whichever occurs sooner.

(B)Remote participation.—

The Commandant shall allow any member of the working group to participate remotely if the member of the working group does not have the means to participate in person.

(4)Use of questions.—

The Commandant may not use questions developed for use in the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination until such questions are reviewed and approved by the working group.

(5)Review.—

(A)In general.—

Not later than 270 days after the date of the enactment of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025, the Commandant shall convene the working group to complete a baseline review of the Coast Guard’s Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination, including review of— (i)

(ii)the accuracy of examination questions;

(iii)the accuracy and availability of examination references;

(iv)the length of merchant mariner examinations;

(v)the relevancy of examination topics and contents;

(vi)any redundancy of core competencies between the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination and Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchingkeeping competencies; and

(vii)the use of standard technologies in administering, scoring, and analyzing the examinations.

(B)Report to commandant.—

Upon completion of the review under this paragraph, a report shall be provided to the Commandant which shall include findings of the review with recommendations for updates to the Merchant Marine Credentialling Examination.

(6)Nondisclosure agreement.—

The Secretary shall require all members of the working group to sign a nondisclosure agreement with the Secretary.

(7)Treatment of members as federal employees.—

A member of the working group who is not a Federal Government employee shall not be considered a Federal employee in the service or the employment of the Federal Government, except that such a member shall be considered a special government employee, as defined in section 202(a) of title 18 for purposes of section 203, 205, 207, 208, and 209 of such title and shall be subject to any administrative standards of conduct applicable to an employee of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating.

(8)Chapter 10 of title 5.—

Chapter 10 of title 5 shall not apply to any working group created under this section to review the Coast Guard’s merchant mariner credentialing examinations.

(d)Merchant Mariner Credential Defined.—

In this section, the term “merchant mariner credential” means a merchant mariner license, certificate, or document that the Secretary is authorized to issue pursuant to this title.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The date of the enactment of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025, referred to in subsec. (c)(1), (5)(A), is the date of enactment of Pub. L. 119–60, which was approved Dec. 18, 2025.

Amendments

2025—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(A), substituted “Working Group” for “Exam Review” in heading. Subsec. (c)(1). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(B)(i)–(iii), substituted “180 days” for “90 days”, “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025” for “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2016”, and “questions, content, and relevancy of” for “new questions for inclusion in” in introductory provisions. Subsec. (c)(1)(E) to (I). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(B)(iv), (v), added subpars. (E) and (F) and redesignated former subpars. (E) to (G) as (G) to (I), respectively. Subsec. (c)(3). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(D), (F), added par. (3) and struck out former par. (3). Prior to amendment, text read as follows: “The requirement to convene a working group under paragraph (1) does not apply unless there are new examination questions to review.” Subsec. (c)(4). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(F), added par. (4). Former par. (4) redesignated (5). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(C)(i), substituted “Review” for “Baseline review” in heading. Subsec. (c)(4)(A). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(C)(ii)(IV)–(VII), added cl. (i), redesignated former cls. (i) to (iii) as (ii) to (iv), respectively, added cls. (v) and (vi), and redesignated former cl. (iv) as (vii). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(C)(ii)(I)–(III), substituted “Not later than 270 days” for “Within 1 year”, “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025” for “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2016”, and “Commandant” for “Secretary” in introductory provisions. Subsec. (c)(4)(B). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(C)(iii), added subpar. (B) and struck out former subpar. (B). Prior to amendment, text read as follows: “The Coast Guard shall provide a progress report to the appropriate congressional committees on the review under this paragraph.” Subsec. (c)(5). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(D), (E), redesignated par. (4) as (5) and struck out par. (5). Text read as follows: “The Coast Guard may convene the working group without all members present if any non-Coast-Guard representative is present.” Subsec. (c)(8). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(D), (E), redesignated par. (9) as (8) and struck out par. (8). Text read as follows: “The Secretary shall ensure that the Coast Guard Performance Technology Center— “(A) prioritizes the review of examinations required for merchant mariner credentials; and “(B) not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2016, completes a formal review, including an appropriate analysis, of the topics and testing methodology employed by the National Maritime Center for merchant mariner licensing.” Subsec. (c)(9). Pub. L. 119–60, § 7301(g)(2)(E), redesignated par. (9) as (8). 2022—Subsec. (c)(9). Pub. L. 117–286 substituted “Chapter 10 of title 5” for “FACA” in heading and “Chapter 10 of title 5” for “The Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.)” in text. 2021—Subsec. (c)(8)(B). Pub. L. 116–283, § 8505(b)(7)(A), substituted “merchant mariner” for “merchant seamen”. Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 116–283, § 8505(b)(7)(B), substituted “merchant mariner license” for “merchant seaman license”. 2018—Subsec. (c)(1). Pub. L. 115–232 substituted “Commandant” for “Commandant of the Coast Guard” in introductory provisions. Subsec. (c)(1)(C). Pub. L. 115–282 inserted “National” before “Merchant Marine”. 2016—Subsec. (c)(1). Pub. L. 114–328, § 3503(a), in introductory provisions, substituted “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2016” for “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015”. Subsec. (c)(1)(D). Pub. L. 114–328, § 3503(b)(1)(A), substituted “engineer” for “engine”. Subsec. (c)(4)(A), (8)(B). Pub. L. 114–328, § 3503(a), substituted “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2016” for “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015”. Subsec. (c)(9). Pub. L. 114–328, § 3503(b)(1)(B), inserted a period after “App”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2016 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 114–328 effective as if included in the enactment of Pub. L. 114–120, see section 3503(e) of Pub. L. 114–328, set out as a note under section 2182 of Title 14, Coast Guard. Disclosure to Congress Pub. L. 114–120, title III, § 315(c), Feb. 8, 2016, 130 Stat. 62, provided that: “Nothing in this section [enacting this section and section 7116 of this title] may be construed to authorize the withholding of information from an appropriate inspector general, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate, or the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives.”

§7510 Examinations for Merchant Mariner Credentials