by Douglas Gould on March 17, 2009
I have been sending around some emails and queries to the USCG about the TWIC program, trying to sort out some of the details about what the future holds. I actually sympathise with the CG on this issue, because I don’t think they really wanted the TWIC to begin with, and those that wrote all the rules did so in haste. Meanwhile, I try to shed some light on the subject. I have updated my TWIC page here at Red Right Returning. Not much new if you have seen it all before – but I continue to see posts all over the internet like this one I saw two days ago:
The way i understand it is that after April 15th 2009 the coast guard will not issue a merchant mariner credential to an applicant who does not hold a valid twic…so if your captains license is good till 2012 your ok but will not be able to renew with out it…..
This truly bad advice was posted just 8 days ago.
If you already have your TWIC, don’t bother about my TWIC page. If you or someone you know is still confused, by all means, click on over.
by Douglas Gould on March 14, 2009
Red Right Returning scoop! Monday’s Federal Register will include this document:
Consolidation of Merchant Mariner Qualification Credentials; Final Rule
OK, not much of a scoop: there isn’t really any surprises here. What this does is put into law the fact all your USCG Credentials will be bundled in to one document, and that the USCG is getting out of the Security Threat Assessment (STA) business; aka background checks and fingerprinting. We all knew this was in the works. I blogged about this here, and this quote from the opening paragraphs of the Final Rule pretty well sums it up:
This rule will minimize these redundant credentialing requirements,and ease the burden on merchant mariners. The Coast Guard is streamlining its mariner regulations and consolidating the four separate credentialing documents into one Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC). In addition to reducing the number of credentials a mariner will need to hold, this rule also eliminates redundant burdens and government processes.
One change I didn’t know about: [click to continue…]
