MITIGATION OF PENALTY DUE TO AVOIDANCE OF A CERTAIN CONDITION.

SEC. 615. MITIGATION OF PENALTY DUE TO AVOIDANCE OF A CERTAIN CONDITION.(a) Treatment of Violation.—For purposes of any administrative proceeding to consider mitigation of any civil penalty for a violation described in subsection (b), such violation is deemed to have been committed by reason of a safety concern.118 STAT. 1061(b) Violation Described.—A violation referred to in subsection (a) is any violation of the Act of June 19, 1886 (chapter 421; 46 App. U.S.C. 289), occurring before April 1, 2003, and consisting of operation of a passenger vessel in transporting passengers between the Port of New Orleans and another port on the Gulf of Mexico at a time when the master of the vessel determined that the vertical clearance on the Mississippi River at Chalmette, Louisiana, was insufficient to allow the safe return transport of passengers on that vessel to the Port of New Orleans.(c) Related Penalty Amount.—Any civil penalty assessed for a violation of that Act by a vessel described in subsection (b), that was committed when that vessel was repositioning to the Port of New Orleans in July 2003, shall be mitigated to an amount not to exceed $100 per passenger.