Bill > S2360

Introduced Session

This bill provides for abolishment of the waterfront commission of New York harbor and dissolution of the bi-state compact providing for the establishment, jurisdiction, functions, and duties of the commission. The bill provides for the assumption of those functions and duties by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey through a supplemental compact to the bi-state compact establishing that authority; the supplemental compact would take effect upon adoption of the compact by the states of New Jersey and New York and, to the extent required, upon consent thereto by the Congress of the United States. Under legislation enacted by New Jersey and New York in 1953 and consented to by Congress that same year, the two states entered into a compact establishing the waterfront commission of New York harbor. This commission is empowered under the compact to regulate the employment of individuals, and the engagement of businesses, in the provision of various cargo handling services within the port of New York district. Notably, the compact provides for the licensure of those acting within the district as pier superintendents, hiring agents, stevedores, and port watchmen, and for the registration of longshoremen. The commission is authorized to establish and maintain within the district "employment information centers" through which longshoremen and port watchmen must be hired in order to work in the district. The compact provides that conviction of any of various offenses shall be grounds upon which a person may be disqualified from receiving or retaining status as a licensee or registrant under the compact. The compact authorizes the commission to enforce its regulations through investigations, hearings and civil penalties, and to fund its operations through an assessment upon the employers of those subject to its regulation; the assessment may not exceed two percent of the estimated gross payroll of those employers. In 1970, both New Jersey and New York enacted legislation to supplement the 1953 compact. Under this legislation, the commissions authority to regulate cargo handling was extended to the licensure of those serving at airports within the two states as airfreightmen or airfreightman supervisors, air freight terminal operators, or air freight truck carriers. Like the earlier legislation, the 1970 legislation confers on the commission the power to enforce its regulation of airport cargo handling, and to fund such regulatory and improvement activity through a payroll-based assessment on employers. This supplementary compact has not received Congressional consent, and has not been implemented.

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Raymond Lesniak (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Transportation Committee (on 10/18/2010)