Advocacy Report
By: MIASF Staff
Date posted: Jul 24, 2020 Fri
As a reminder, the FEC Railroad Bridge on the New River is moving forward with U.S. Coast Guard-approved closures for the railroad upgrade. The FEC is upgrading the rails on the bridge to permit freight trains to travel at a higher rate of speed, increasing from 25 mph to 40 mph, resulting in less bridge closure time. The work will begin the week of July 27th with the majority of the work conducted during the overnight hours to limit the impact, however, during the week of August 17th, welding work must be executed during the heat of the day and is scheduled to coincide with the afternoon rush hour lock down of the other New River bridges, beginning immediately after the scheduled 4:00 p.m. opening. The full schedule can be found here.
The drawbridge operation regulation is in the Proposed Rule phase and has been published in the Federal Register. This regulation change includes a predictable hourly opening, as well as open when not in use default position to assure the reasonable right to navigation. Interested parties are encouraged to review the rule and comment. The comment period for this phase ends on August 12, 2020. The link to access the Federal Register and comment is https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=USCG-2019-0955.
On June 30th, Governor Ron DeSantis signed “The Occupational Freedom and Opportunity Act” (HB 1193), which eliminates barriers of entry to certain professions licensed by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DPBR) by adding endorsement and reciprocity provisions, removing supplemental business licenses and corresponding license fees, reducing licensure education requirements, and eliminating other licensure and registration requirements. Florida’s multi-office yacht brokerage firms will benefit from this regulation change that allows yacht and ship brokers to maintain one license tied to their principal place of business without requiring additional licenses for each branch office.
MIASF congratulates Lieutenant Derek Wallin as he leaves U.S. Coast Guard Station Fort Lauderdale to set off on new adventures in Washington D.C. and welcomes Lieutenant Raymond C. Milne IV to Station Fort Lauderdale. The change of command ceremony traditionally open to the public was restricted and very limited because of social distancing. To accommodate additional invited guests who wanted to attend, Water Taxi provided a vessel so the ceremony could be viewed waterside at Station Fort Lauderdale.