House passes Coast Guard authorization, sends to White House

The House on Wednesday morning approved a bill that authorizes the Coast Guard for two years, and sent it to the White House for President Obama's signature.

The House had approved similar legislation, H.R. 2838, in November 2011. The Senate then approved the bill with some amendments in September. Wednesday morning, the House approved a resolution, H.Res. 825, that accepts the Senate changes.

The final bill authorizes a little more than $7 billion in Coast Guard spending in both 2013 and 2014.

One of the changes the Senate made was to strip out language from the House bill that would have set a single, nationwide standard for ballast discharge for commercial ships. In 2011, House Democrats opposed that language and said states should be in charge of this issue, to ensure their ability to set standards that meet their own local environmental needs.

After a brief debate on the bill Wednesday morning, the House approved it by voice vote.

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