Senator Boxer killed legislation that was far stronger than this, passed by the House 395-7 (h.r.2830) in 2008 because she claimed it would over ride her states rights to stronger ballast water laws. The majority of the politicians that voted 395-7 in 2008 for national ballast water legislation are still in office. In the summer of 2008 I wrote Governor Patterson and ask him how our state would be represented on h.r. 2830 before Senator Boxer held up the Senates consideration. A Mr. Tierney wrote back on the Governors behalf touting how much better the plan for NY was than h.r.2830. I wrote Mr. Tierney back asking how NY would enforce these regulations since the state dose not have an infrastructure to enforce them, but he never bothered to reply. I wrote Senator Schummer while h.r.2830 was still being worked on in the House asking about his position, he replied with an e-mail stating he was happy I was interested in his work and even called me his friend. He wrote that he would send me a detailed reply to my questions. I am still waiting for his reply. To me these actions indicated that NY had no intention of supporting Federal ballast water legislation. If Senator Boxer dose not kill this bill because it would over ride her states rights to stronger legislation it would indicate that her true wish in 2008 was not to have strong national ballast water regulations. California like NY dose not have the capabilities to enforce their regulations either. The creator of h.r.2830 former rep Oberstar when speaking about the bills (h.r.2830) demise referred to the explanations given as "BS". Environmentalist and those that care about human bacteria , virus and invasive s being dumped into our waters should hold both parties along with the disregard of the commander and chief President Obama, to address this national security issue with Congress or with a still promised military plan by the Coast Guard. Now we have legislation h.r.2838 that will lock America's environmental laws to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The IMO has a lousy track record, obvious by the cholera epidemics that have been correlated to ballast water that has killed people all over the world and currently still is. Cholera has been found recently by the CDC in both fresh and salt water ports in Haiti.
The invasive fish virus currently in the Great Lakes is believed to have mutated from the Atlantic coast (salt water) to the Great Lakes (fresh water). How good is the IMO ocean flush?
The last sentence from the following excerpt from a report prepared for Congress in 2009 may hold the real clues as to why both parties seem to try and kill strong national ballast water regulations regardless of the rhetoric.
“Although estimates of the costs of ballast treatment may be imprecise and vary from vessel to
vessel, there is some general agreement on average costs.14 For example, it may cost an estimated
$400,000 per vessel for modification of container/bulk vessels to use onshore ballast water
treatment facilities at California ports. More generally, the cost of retrofitting vessels to treat
ballast water has been estimated at between $200,000 and $310,000 per vessel for mechanical
treatment and around $300,000 for chemical treatment.15 Most of this expense will be borne by
foreign shipping companies, as the U.S. flag fleet is a small percentage of the global fleet,16 and
likely passed along to consumers of products imported on these ships."

As manufacturing jobs are created where cost to manufacture goods are low, along with low logistic cost to deliver product, the blame for continued environmental damage and human health risk that ballast water presents, lies with the politicians that continue to impede creation of strong National ballast water laws affecting all American ports equally.

Now Nov 30 2011 and is the Commander chief's military plan still appears delayed. As this article points out NY politicians are requesting the Coast Guard to act, even though the military purposed plan appears far weaker than New York's regulations. The question now should be ask, will New York back off their plan in favor of a weaker military plan, that is not even as strong as legislation passed bi-partisan in the House (395-7) during 2008. Odd that Senator Boxer killed the legislation allegedly because she claimed it was not strong enough for her states rights and never introduced anything new while her party controlled both the House. Senate, and White house? Louise Slaughter voted in 2008 for the House legislation, but it now seems, not only is she willing to discard the strong regulations New York began drawing up before the demise of the House legislation in 2008 but it also appears she is willing to accept the weakest option, that of the commander and chief's military plan. If the weak plan the Coast Guard previously purposed ever materializes, will New York continue exercising it's states right to create adequate
protection or will all the state rivalry, international strife, and tax payer dollars spent have only have been a guise for the delayed Coast Guard plan?

Ballast water and the general public's awareness!!!!
The United States national broadcast media lies by omission about many important things that are not pop culture news or sex scandals etc.yet people trust them. It is not surprising the amount of voter apathy in the USA. Many important issue's that the American voters need to know are never mentioned and are covered up by the US media. Most of those who do vote do not have the slightest idea what a candidate really stands for on an issue and are voting for the candidate's personality as portrayed by the media.
If it is political and has to do with hurting economic globalization they will never inform the American people.---- an example of a media lie by omission, (you can find this on the web) is our commander and chief's military delay plan to thwart national ballast water legislation which started in 2008. Strong national ballast water legislation would hurt the cheap price of foreign made goods. Currently this is causing Canada and the Great Lakes States to argue as New York and California's Senator Boxer use state rights to help the Commander and chief's Coast Guard delay plan thwart national ballast legislation. Their goal is to wait and allow an international organization of diverse governments and business's (the IMO) to decide the amount of human virus and bacteria they dump in our waters delivering foreign made products in order to preserve globalization. Rumor has it this will be coincidentally around the time New York delayed implementation of their regulations to take affect . ( 2013)
The Republicans are at least honest about it and have recently introduced ballast water legislation admitting they want foreign economic influence to determine America's environmental policy regardless of the International Maritime Organization lousy track record. The following excerpt is from a report prepared for Congress in 2009 detailing the cost for ballast water technology:
"Most of this expense will be borne by
foreign shipping companies, as the U.S. flag fleet is a small percentage of the global fleet,16 and
likely passed along to consumers of products imported on these ships.”
Products are manufactured were labor cost are lowest and the cost to deliver product to market are insignificant .

Now the the Water Town Times is reporting NY will probably back down on its ballast water regulations. Well this was predictable since these regulations appear to have been incorporated as a guise after Senator Boxer killed ballast water regulations passed bi-partisan in the House (395-7) during the presidential election year 2008, which were reportedly supported by environmentalist and the shipping industry. The irony is she killed the legislation allegedly because they stopped her state rights to enact even stronger regulations. The insult to NY citizens part would be wasted tax payer money on frivolous intentions. Governor Coumo helped draw up these regulations and defended them in litigation while attorney general. National Ballast water legislation is not what this administration wants as their party has not tried to introduce anything else since 2008 except a Coast Guard plan that environmentalist feel is to weak and follows the IMO an international organization of foreign business interest. Watch and see, if now New York will conform to the Coast Guard plan which is far weaker than the legislation we could have had back in 2008 when this administrations party controlled the House and Senate. If New York dose back down it will sadly show the NRDC was just duped into believing in the states concern for stronger regulations than those they did not push for in 2008 to allow time for this administration to align with the IMO

ya have to laugh at those who believe a group in NY called the Independent Democratic Conference on regulation wants to adjust the work of a popular strong Democratic governor who helped spend NY tax dollars developing and litigating regulations to protect NY waters from the FOREIGN ECONOMIC shipping industry dumping ballast water containing virus and bacteria. This is now the results we are faced with because of the Federal governments failure to protect the states water and because the pressure to cave in on a policy the state can not enforce is immense . It is hard to believe this is not generated by head of New York's government as a way to save face.
Because of the broadcasting medias conscious decision not inform , only a small percentage of Americans are aware of this problem and have watched the charade of New York claiming states rights to protect their waters after they did not support strong legislation passed 395-7 in the House during 2008 but instead enlisted the help of the NRDC headquartered in NY city. Is the National media centered in NY city silent because they believe in an international environmental approach? Interestingly the millennium report prepared by the military tells of the inadequate compliance foreign countries with economic interest have shown for the type of international environmental regulations that this commander and chief military has not even instituted yet and still purposes for the America's standard. Is the reason for network silence because their organizations are laced with relatives of politicians past and present who have supported economic globalization for decades as vitally important without protecting Americans environment and health, all while people around the world have been dying for over a decade from cholera introduced by ships ballast water.
Forgiveness should be extended to the politicians who by ignorance of the problem have ignored it. But we have had a president who was governor of a state where a large portion of the income is derived from the movement of product swimming in natural waters being moved around the country, which was known to have been affected by virus during the mid 1990's with the risk correlateing to laws of interstate transportation, all during a time when 10,000 people were dying of cholera in South America connected to ballast water. It should never be claimed who knew. It is sad that the past and the present American leaders of the last four years, unfortunately have illustrated this disregard by the failure to institute any meaningful action yet to correct the problem while pushing for increased economic activity requiring increasing shipping activity.
If New York caves in to foreign international economic shipping interest I wonder if Mr. Tierney's voiced opinions on virus and polluted water being dumped in NY from around the world will historically be remembered as the fingerprints on this deception. Personally knowing the response Mr. Tierney sent to me in the summer of 2008 on behalf of NY governor Paterson concerning how NY would be represented on the ballast water legislation passed in the House 395-7, I believe he should be. If NY backs down people should also watch and see the reaction of the NRDC. Will the NRDC have an attitude of progress after not pushing for national legislation while the administrations party held the presidency and both house's in Congress so they could pursue a states rights approach? Those who believe that an autonomous country should create standards that benefit their own country and not foreign economic interest, should not be proclaiming any inadequate policy to be progress and should realize the issue will now not be corrected adequately anytime in the near future as this administration has effectively killed what political will there may have been for strong National legislation. Invoking state rights to curtail meaningful action to permanently fix this problem under the guise of stronger regulation hoping for Federal policy has created another four years of nothing adequate.

http://readme.readmedia.com/New-York-Pursues-Uniform-National-Ballast-Water-Requirements/3642280

Sadly very few people even know what ballast water is and could not care that NY wasted tax payer money and started formulation of these regulations in 2008 instead of pursuing the bi-partisan legislation passed 395-7 in the House during 2008 that called for the type of strong legislation they claim to now pursue, (reportedly supported by environmentalist and the shipping industry).
The New York network broadcast news medias should be quite happy as their silence is probably the single largest factor in helping destroy the chance to achieve a strong National Ballast Water policy. As these networks form partnerships on the internet unfortunately now even a large part of the internet media is being controlled by national media as they censor and selectively post public comments that only support their ideology with posted comments that do not threaten their beliefs or seem radically unacceptable, all while portraying them as the public's opinion. Now many internet news headlines are proclaiming NY caving in as a positive event saying NY is calling for stronger federal regulations when they are really saying we give up.
Environmentalist say they may want to sue the EPA again, the question is when after the next presidential election when the next commander and chief may want to cut the EPA?