Window on Washington: Steaming Toward the Lame Duck

This article originally appeared in the Third Quarter 2024 Benedict’s Maritime Bulletin. Reprinted with permission. Any opinions in this article are not those of Winston & Strawn or its clients. The opinions in this article are the author’s opinions only.

The dog days of summer are here in the nation’s capital, and Congress is steadily working to assemble its two most consequential pieces of legislation for the maritime industry—the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and the Coast Guard Authorization Act. In recent years, the NDAA has been the legislative vehicle for the Coast Guard Authorization Act, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) Authorization Act, or both. If what is past is prologue, passage of these two bills will occur during the lame duck 118th Congress, as the year draws to a close. Currently, the House has released its text of the bills, and the Senate has begun deliberations ahead of the August recess.