§ 7510. Examinations for merchant mariner credentials

• (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary is not required to disclose to the public—
  • (1) a question from any examination for a merchant mariner credential;
  • (2) the answer to such a question, including any correct or incorrect answer that may be presented with such question; and
  • (3) any quality or characteristic of such a question, including—
    • (A) the manner in which such question has been, is, or may be selected for an examination;
    • (B) the frequency of such selection; and
    • (C) the frequency that an examinee correctly or incorrectly answered such question.
• (b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the Secretary may, for the purpose of preparation by the general public for examinations required for merchant mariner credentials, release an examination question and answer that the Secretary has retired or is not presently on or part of an examination, or that the Secretary determines is appropriate for release.
• (c)
  • (1) Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025, and once every two years thereafter, the Commandant shall commission a working group to review questions, content, and relevancy of examinations required for merchant mariner credentials, composed of—
    • (A) 1 subject matter expert from the Coast Guard;
    • (B) representatives from training facilities and the maritime industry, of whom—
      • (i) one-half shall be representatives from approved training facilities; and
      • (ii) one-half shall be representatives from the appropriate maritime industry;
    • (C) at least 1 representative from the National Merchant Marine Personnel Advisory Committee;
    • (D) at least 2 representatives from the State maritime academies, of whom one shall be a representative from the deck training track and one shall be a representative of the engineer license track;
    • (E) at least 2 individuals that have taken and passed the examination in the 5 years before the commissioning of the working group;
    • (F) at least 1 representative from the United States Merchant Marine Academy;
    • (G) representatives from other Coast Guard Federal advisory committees, as appropriate, for the industry segment associated with the subject examinations;
    • (H) at least 1 subject matter expert from the Maritime Administration; and
    • (I) at least 1 human performance technology representative.
  • (2) The working group shall include representatives knowledgeable about the examination type under review.
  • (3)
    • (A) The Commandant shall convene the working group annually or at the creation of new examination questions, whichever occurs sooner.
    • (B) The Commandant shall allow any member of the working group to participate remotely if the member of the working group does not have the means to participate in person.
  • (4) The Commandant may not use questions developed for use in the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination until such questions are reviewed and approved by the working group.
  • (5)
    • (A) Not later than 270 days after the date of the enactment of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025, the Commandant shall convene the working group to complete a baseline review of the Coast Guard’s Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination, including review of—
      • (i) industry standards, practices, and technology to be considered in the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination;
      • (ii) the accuracy of examination questions;
      • (iii) the accuracy and availability of examination references;
      • (iv) the length of merchant mariner examinations;
      • (v) the relevancy of examination topics and contents;
      • (vi) any redundancy of core competencies between the Merchant Mariner Credentialing Examination and Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchingkeeping competencies; and
      • (vii) the use of standard technologies in administering, scoring, and analyzing the examinations.
    • (B) Upon completion of the review under this paragraph, a report shall be provided to the Commandant which shall include findings of the review with recommendations for updates to the Merchant Marine Credentialling Examination.
  • (6) The Secretary shall require all members of the working group to sign a nondisclosure agreement with the Secretary.
  • (7) A member of the working group who is not a Federal Government employee shall not be considered a Federal employee in the service or the employment of the Federal Government, except that such a member shall be considered a special government employee, as defined in section 202(a) of title 18 for purposes of sections 203, 205, 207, 208, and 209 of such title and shall be subject to any administrative standards of conduct applicable to an employee of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating.
  • (8) Chapter 10 of title 5 shall not apply to any working group created under this section to review the Coast Guard’s merchant mariner credentialing examinations.
• (d) In this section, the term “merchant mariner credential” means a merchant mariner license, certificate, or document that the Secretary is authorized to issue pursuant to this title.