i will be in salerno on easter. good to have you here, and again, thank you so much for your service. they never come and lobby me. there are a small portion of what some of the federal folks aren't. -- what the federal folks earn. i cannot say enough about what you do. right now we are all dealing with anecdotal accounts. i want to hear from the actual passengers. that is great when we bring them in. there are even bigger ships out there. is the muster drill and the like but safety drill currently adequate? i know many of the cruise ships have gone to a much shorter time when folks board. >> we have made it a requirement as part of our examination, that drill. i think that is almost a reasonable outcome from what we are seeing from this casualty. it is a voluntary practice could then the united states. i believe it may apply -- >> we would like to take your recommendation. i don't know if it needs to be a law, but may be a regulation. also to the international organizations, we have the best possible standard for t

strict regulations and vigorous enforcement mechanisms, cruising is, as we heard from vice admiral salerno, one of the very safest forms of recreation and travel in the world. in the decade prior to the grounding of the concordia, there were a total of 28 fatalities on cruise ships related to operational casualty out of 223 million passengers and crew who sailed during those years. 22 of those fatalities involved crewmembers, and six involved passengers. now let me be very clear. not a single fatality is acceptable to our industry. and we have and will continue to work hard to prevent such incidents. we treat every one of these tragedies as a profound reminder of our duty to continuously improve our practices, procedures, and performance. the concordia incident is no different. almost immediately following the accident, clea member cruise lines launched a cruise industry operational safety review, which is a comprehensive assessment of the critical human factors and operationals s s a aspects of maritime safety. this is underway and will allow our crews to share best practices, consulting

the industry over the past decade prior to this incident, and i think we heard from vice admiral salerno this morning, who also spoke to the strong safety record of the industry, the level of training, experience, investment in technology, and innovation that has happened over the last decade as we've seen the cruise industry grow globally i think stands as testimony to the safety, the commitment of our members to safety as our top priority. otherwise, we wouldn't have a successful business. not only is it the right thing to do, but we continuously focus on ways that we can improve the record that we have. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. cummings. without any further questions, i want to thank the current panel and the previous panels very much as i think everyone can tell, this will be an ongoing situation for the subcommittee. we'll have a lot of questions that we need answered to see where we go from here. but appreciate your involvement. the committee stands adjourned. >>> ben cohen, co-founder of ben & jerry's ice cream is helping to raise $1.8 million for the occupy wall

admiral, that's interesting, your last time salerno and my family sailed from there when they came to the united states and i'll be there on easter with some of them. i love the coast guard. they never come and will bey me. they -- with all the other federal folks earn, they never pick at me. there's just a -- they are wonderful folks to deal with and they're just so -- they do such a great job, i can't say enough about what you do. muster drill thing, you know, right now we're all dealing with anecdotal accounts and we'll hear some from the passengers and i think it's great that we bring them in. this is pretty big ship but they're even bigger ships out there. is the musterll

best done under a system with strong flag state control as we have in the united states, as admiral salerno made clear this morning. we're also concerned with the issue of communication between crewmembers and passengers. while this isn't an issue on u.s. flag vessels where most of the crew are american and speak english, on ships documented under an foc, the crew is often of various nationalities and often do not speak the same language. even on board the costa concordia which was an italian flagship not under an foc, there were crewmembers from over 40 nationalities. as our crewmembers who were on board testified this morning, there were issues with communication and a language barrier on board the ship that contributed to system of the issues that were found there. we find it hard table that breakdowns in communications in a crisis, they're going to be inevitable. now while crew training and communication are important, we believe that best in order to protect the passengers, passengers themselves must feel confident that they me what to do in the event of an emergency. and that's why we

i will be in salerno on easter.good to have you here, and again, thank you so much for your service. they never come and lobby me. there are a small portion of what some of the federal folks earn. i cannot say enough about what you do. right now we are all dealing with anecdotal accounts. i want to hear from the actual passengers. that is great when we bring them in. there are even bigger ships out there. is the muster drill and the like but safety drill currently adequate? i know many of the cruise ships have gone to a much shorter time when folks board. >> we have made it a requirement as part of our examination, that drill. i think that is almost a reasonable outcome from what we are seeing from this casualty. it is a voluntary practice could then the united states. i believe it may apply -- internationally as well. >> that they could be looked at? >> i do. >> we would like to take your recommendation. i don't know if it needs to be a law, but may be a regulation. also to the international organizations, we have

>> this is another area where the supreme court has been a little bit on certain actors salerno. our view is that that does not matter for purposes of necessary and proper clause analysis. the question you are faced with here is this -- can congress regulate the decision to self- insure as part of an overall comprehensive scheme. the answer to that has to be yes because of the undoubted evidence congress had before that they could not reform the insurance market to include those with pre-existing conditions unless they also adopted a minimum coverage provision. congress had strong empirical evidence support. >> the empirical evidence emboss the employment act, too. >> not with respect to what is necessary and proper to feel -- still in the gap. >> the government has argued the necessary and proper clause and won. >> if i could explain what congress is doing first, we could talk about the differences with morrison, if any. >> there are a states that reform of the insurance market. -- 8 states. the reform the insurance market. the only state that work was massachusetts. it worked.

that is what i think salerno was getting at in the united states vs. foster was getting at. >> we need to hear from you on the indian junction act precisely. congress would not have wanted to wait until after the interconnected provisions are implemented and relied upon by millions of individuals for challenges to the constitutionality of the amendment. is that, remaining your position -- those that remain your position? > >> it does. as officers of the court, we're trying to give you the best sense and tell you we do not think the anti-injunction act applies. >> thank you very much. >> why don't you wait a minute? people have been in here for an hour and a half. we will miss you dearly, but please do it at this moment. shows you have interest lags at the end. [laughter] we must get through it all. i believe we have had the departures -- all right. stand by. one more in the door will close and we will hear your closing. this court asked my friend about any cases he could point to that would show congress have the authority to regulate in activity. one

our first witness today is coasd guard vice admiral brian salerno.welcome. >> chairman mica, lobiondo, a ranking member larsen and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you and to discuss issues related to the cruise ship safety. thank you especially for your expression of sympathy for the coast guard lost last evening. we are a small service, and events like that touched us all very deeply, so we very much appreciate your acknowledgment of that this morning. every year over 170 large passenger ships operate from the united states ports, and they embark approximately 11.5 million passengers. the safety of these passengers and the cruise to operate the vessels have been a longstanding focus of the coast guard. every year the federal examinations of these vessels comply with all united states and international safety, security and environmental standards and ensure that the cruise are well trained. in my role as the deputy of operations i'm responsible for setting the safety, security and environmental s