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We have two thoughts that we would like to share with the committee. First, it seems to 

 us that the financial penalty is an insignificant deterrent to a large carrier. Over the 

 course of a year, the maximum penalty of $500,000, spread over the number of 

 passengers sailing Princess ships out of U.S. ports, would average only a dollar or two 

 per passenger. This is not a severe financial penalty to a company the size of Princess. 

 Perhaps the law should be broadened to include the loss of port privileges to repeat 

 offenders. This would represent an economic threat great enough to truly discourage the 

 prohibited practices. 



Secondly, we believe that a "citizen ombudsman" needs to be established. Passengers 

 must have a direct channel to report incidents of this nature. Someone to cut through the 

 bureaucracy, follow the progress of investigations and report to Congress and the 

 responsible federal agencies on a regular basis. 



I thank the committee for this opportunity to share our experiences. 



Sincerely, 



houcom4 



