Clatsop Community College is hoping a new piece of federal legislation will designate the school as one of the country’s few maritime centers of excellence.

College President Christopher Breitmeyer said the legislation — the Domestic Maritime Centers of Excellence Act of 2017 — is being planned by 18 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 16 members of the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. Secretary of Transportation can designate community and technical colleges as centers of excellence for workforce training. The designation grants those schools technical assistance, surplus federal equipment and funding from the federal government.

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, previously sponsored the Maritime and Energy Workforce Technical Training Enhancement Act in 2015. The legislation would have created the first-ever community and technical college Centers of Excellence program and directed the U.S. Department of Energy to award grants to expand maritime training programs and partnerships. The bill was introduced but never passed either chamber of Congress.

Ali Mayeda, a spokeswoman for Bonamici, confirmed the congresswoman is working on a similar piece of legislation with other congressional representatives.

“Congresswoman Bonamici strongly supports workforce training programs that help people gain high-demand skills and succeed in the workplace,” Mayeda said in an email. “Clatsop Community College is uniquely situated to continue to meet the needs of the maritime workforce with high-quality, hands-on education. In the previous legislative session she was proud to advocate for more resources to support workforce training like” the college’s Marine and Environmental Research and Training Station.

Breitmeyer said he has not been told when the legislation might be introduced.

The college has been trying for some time to become a federally designated maritime center of excellence, which can provide additional financial and other supports.

A year ago, the college board approved applying for capital construction bonds from the state to add a second story to the training station’s main administrative and classroom building, at a cost of more than $8 million. Breitmeyer said the project has fallen to the bottom of a funding priority list for this biennium, likely because of similar bonds the college recently received for the Patriot Hall redevelopment. “If not funded now, we’ll go for it in the next biennium,” Breitmeyer said.

The training station includes U.S. Coast Guard-approved classroom instruction and at-sea experience aboard the college’s training vessel, the Forerunner. The maritime sciences program offers everything from an associate degree in vessel operations to one-week classes for experienced mariners seeking additional certifications.

In 2013, the college was named the only community college with a Coast Guard-approved Training Ship Program, which bolsters the credentials of graduating students trying to become able-bodied seamen and operators of uninspected vessels in near-coastal and inland waters. In 2014, the college was named Oregon’s Maritime Training College by a state resolution.