WASHINGTON – Today, Missouri Senators Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley announced that they have reintroduced legislation to improve the safety of duck boats following the 2018 tragedy on Table Rock Lake. The legislation would authorize previously-outlined National Transportation Safety Board recommendations, including commonsense provisions to require the use of life jackets and equipping all operating duck boats to be more buoyant in the case of emergency flooding.

"Seventeen people lost their lives in the duck boat tragedy on Table Rock Lake," said Blunt. "These common-sense safety measures, which are long overdue and need to go into effect immediately, will help prevent an incident like this from ever happening again. I was disappointed the House didn’t act on this important legislation after it passed the Senate last Congress. I urge all of my colleagues to come together and support our efforts to improve safety and protect lives.”

“In 2018, 17 people lost their lives in a preventable tragedy on Table Rock Lake,” said Hawley. “The best way we can honor the lives lost there and those lost in the accidents that preceded it is to do our part in protecting safety on the water and passing this common-sense legislation. This bill passed the Senate unanimously last year, and I am committed to building on that progress and seeing it become law.”

The bill was passed unanimously by the full Senate and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in the 116th Congress.