Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 4842 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 • FOGHORN HOW PVA BENEFITS YOU By Jen Wilk, Director, Public Affairs and Development PVA Working For You L ate last month, PVA advanced two major policy pri- orities by urging for an update of the marine casualty reporting dollar thresholds, and submitting PVA’s Flagship Safety Management System (SMS) to the U.S. Coast Guard. Even as 2016 was coming to a close, PVA continued to advocate for members and emphasize the industry’s com- mitment to safe operations. Updating Dollar Threshold for Marine Casualty Reporting PVA made a formal request that the Coast Guard initiate a rulemaking to update the dollar thresholds for the regula- tory terms “marine casualty” and “serious marine incident” as applicable to the marine casualty reporting process. Currently, the law requires a marine casualty to be reported if certain criteria are met, including material loss of property and damages in excess of certain fixed dollar amounts set in regulation. In a letter to Secretary Jeh Johnson, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), PVA stated, “Adjusting the property damage reporting threshold to (at a minimum) account for inflation since 1980 will relieve vessel operators of a regulatory burden and better enable the Coast Guard marine casualty reporting system to focus on more serious accidents and casualties. This will more appropriately ensure that the marine casualty reporting system meets its intended purpose to ‘promote the safety of life and property through-