Section 2107 provides for standard procedures for the handling of civil penalties for infractions of law or regulation. Some changes were made to increase some antiquated and inadequate penalties.

The assessment of civil penalties under this section should not require an “on the record” hearing within the meaning of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). It is intended that these civil penalties be assessed in a fair manner. However, the Committee recognizes that statutes passed in the last decade have involved the Coast Guard in tens of thousands of civil penalty enforcement cases and that it is necessary that the penalties be assessed efficiently. The Coast Guard’s procedural regulations for assessing civil penalties ensure that the essential elements of due process, notice, and opportunity to be heard, are provided to alleged violators (see 33 CFR Subpart 1.07). The more rigid and time-consuming procedures applicable to APA adjudications are unwarranted in the case of Coast Guard civil penalty assessment procedures and would seriously hamper the orderly enforcement of these administrative penalties.

2006—Pub. L. 109–241 substituted “this subtitle or subtitle VII” for “this subtitle” in two places in subsec. (a) and in one place in subsec. (b).