If you have not already tried to renew your insurance for next year – you’re going to be in for a big and unhappy surprise this holiday season. Dive operators around the country that use small passenger-carrying vessels as part of their dive business are already reporting exponential increases in their premiums because of action Congress took just last week.

PLEASE – call and email your US Congressman and Senator TODAY AND TOMORROW – and ask for the staffer who handles Coast Guard Matters. We need your urgent action because this Congress is adjourning before Christmas, and there won’t be another chance to try and stop this in 2022.

• House Switchboard: 202.225.3121
• Senate Switchboard: 202.224.3121

Here is what we need YOU to tell Congress to help save your businesses:

• Buried in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that just passed is a provision that is devastating MY small business and may force me to lay off employees over the holiday season.
• Section 11503 was touted as a “fix for the families who lost loved ones” in the tragic boating Conception Dive Boat fire of 2019.
• The language goes far beyond one tragedy. IT IMPACTS ALL SMALL VESSEL operators and DOES NOTHING to improve safety. It just requires me to increase my liability insurance in case I get sued AFTER an accident. 
• [If you have a personal story about the costs you are facing, please share – e.g., we know of a dive boat operator facing $160K insurance increase for a $2.2M operation.]
• I am asking the [Congressman/Senator] to support language that would REPEAL NDAA Section 11503 in the Omnibus funding deal being negotiated right now.  
• This is only a payday to plaintiffs’ bar and insurance companies at the expense of my small operation and our employees. Please help us from having to lay people off over the holidays!!

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