A bill to authorize the Secretary of Transportation to issue a certificate of documentation with appropriate endorsement for employment in the coastwise trade for the vessel PRINCE NOVA, and for other purposes.
Public Law 105-157 · S. 1349 · 105th Congress · began in the Senate
Signed by Bill Clinton (D) on Feb 11, 1998 · Transportation and Public Works
Sponsor: Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Cosponsors (1): Sen. Joseph Lieberman
Passage votes
- HouseUnanimous consent
- SenateUnanimous consent
Data notes
The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.
Summary
The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.
Authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to issue a certificate of documentation for a named vessel for employment in the coastwise trade.
Terminates the certificate unless specified conversion, reconstruction, repair, rebuilding, or retrofitting occurs in a U.S. shipyard.
Committees
The committees the bill was sent to, and what each did with it.
Data notes
A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.
Timeline
From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 11 actions.
- Feb 11, 1998Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 105-157.
- Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
- Feb 5, 1998PresidentPresident · Presented to President.
- Feb 3, 1998FloorFloor · Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- FloorFloor · On passage Passed without objection.
- FloorFloor · Mr. LoBiondo asked unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table and consider.
- FloorFloor · Considered by unanimous consent.
- Nov 13, 1997FloorFloor · Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- CommitteeCommittee · Discharged from Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
- Oct 30, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Referred to Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
- IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in the Senate
Data notes
Shows the introduction, each committee and subcommittee step the source dates (referral, hearings, markup, report, discharge), and the floor, conference, presidential and became-law steps. Calendar placements, messages between the chambers, amendments and committee report numbers are not shown for laws before the 108th Congress. Two entries the source lists twice are shown once.
Official record
The bill’s full text and every action, including introduction and committee steps, are on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.