Sponsors (3)
Introduced May 13, 2025 by Salud Carbajal · Last progress May 13, 2025
The bill modernizes and improves fairness and oversight of maritime credentialing exams with greater stakeholder input and data-driven review, but it also introduces longer review timelines and added administrative steps that can delay updates and increase government workload.
Mariners and other credential applicants will receive exams with updated content that removes outdated topics and better matches current industry practice, improving the relevance of qualification tests.
Mariners and federal testing personnel will see testing procedures modernized to align with contemporary standardized testing, making exams fairer and more valid.
Mariners and exam administrators will benefit from collection of question- and exam-level pass/fail data, enabling evidence-based improvements and better identification and remediation of weak topics over time.
Mariners and federal testing staff will face slower introduction of updated questions because review timelines are extended from 90 to 180 days and additional approval steps are imposed.
Coast Guard staff and taxpayers may incur increased administrative burden and potential bottlenecks because working-group approval is required before new questions can be used.
Coast Guard personnel and taxpayers will face extra reporting and planning workload due to mandated briefings and planning deadlines, which could divert resources from other priorities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Changes how the merchant mariner credential exam is reviewed, approved, and modernized by requiring a Coast Guard-led review process, a standing working group with recent exam passers, new timelines for reviews and planning, and a formal modernization plan and briefing to Congress. It also stops the Coast Guard from using new exam questions until the working group has reviewed and approved them and requires better data collection and testing practices to update exam content and procedures.