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BSEE and Coast Guard Senior Leaders Meet in Washington

BSEE and Coast Guard Senior Leaders Meet in Washington

WASHINGTON- Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Brian Salerno welcomed Coast Guard Rear Admiral Joseph Servidio and other Coast Guard senior officers yesterday to BSEE's headquarters in Washington, D.C. for the first quarterly meeting between the two agencies in 2014. Shortly after BSEE was established on October 1, 2011, BSEE and the Coast Guard pledged to conduct senior management level coordination meetings four times each year.

Today's meeting between the two agencies included operations updates from both BSEE and Coast Guard leaders within the Gulf of Mexico Region and presentations and discussions involving headquarters staffs in Washington, D.C. The two agencies discussed developing and capturing offshore facility data and creating a system to share that information. Also discussed were BSEE and Coast Guard inspection requirements for offshore rigs and fixed facilities and the creation of joint training opportunities for BSEE and Coast Guard personnel. In addition, BSEE and Coast Guard leaders expressed their continued commitment to the Arctic and vowed to continue discussions on Arctic operations, rulemakings and planning efforts both within their field offices in Alaska and at the headquarters level. The next meeting is being planned and will occur in the Spring at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Senior leaders of the Department of the Interior and Coast Guard have been conducting routine meetings in Washington, D.C. since the late 1990s. Since October 1, 2011, however, the meetings have taken on a new significance and have occurred on a quarterly basis and as a sign of commitment to interagency coordination, included the Director of BSEE. In early 2014, BSEE and the Coast Guard formally established a new quarterly meeting schedule that has affirmed the importance of exchanging information on offshore activities and expanding communications between the two agencies to include separate quarterly meetings of a Response Workgroup and a Prevention Workgroup, in addition to senior leaders from BSEE's Gulf of Mexico Region office and the the Coast Guard's District Eight in New Orleans.

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Director Brian Salerno welcomed Coast Guard Rear Admiral Joseph Servidio and other Coast Guard senior officers yesterday