For years, the United States required more sea time to earn an Able Seaman endorsement than the rest of the world required for the equivalent credential. Three years for AB-Unlimited, when the international STCW standard for Able Seafarer-Deck calls for roughly 540 days. Congress corrected that, and the correction is now permanent federal law.
The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025, signed December 18, 2025, amended the three sections of Title 46 that govern AB sea service requirements. AB-Unlimited went from three years to 18 months. AB-Limited went from 18 months to 12 months. AB-Special went from 12 months to six months. No sunset. No reauthorization needed.
These reductions had been in effect since December 2023 under Section 3534(j) of the FY24 NDAA, but they were temporary, set to expire after three years, to ensure no impact to safety or standards. Congress locked them into the permanent statute nearly a year early.
The Seafarers International Union, Transportation Institute, and USA Maritime worked for years to build the Congressional support needed to get these reductions into law and then to make sure they became permanent. When the temporary reductions first took effect, Augie Tellez, Executive Vice President of the Seafarers International Union, said it well: "Thank you to the Coast Guard and their hardworking team for listening to the needs of the workforce to ensure industry can provide qualified mariners to assist national security, safety and the shipping industry flourish."
The AB endorsement is one of the gateways to join the professional mariner workforce. It is the credential that gets a deckhand onto a towing vessel, a tanker, or a Military Sealift Command ship. The United States was asking its mariners to accumulate more sea time than the rest of the world before they could qualify, and now it is not.
The alignment is clean. AB-Unlimited now requires 540 days. The STCW Able Seafarer-Deck endorsement also requires 540 days. Same sea time, same credential level, national and international in sync.
The Coast Guard got ahead of this. CG-MMC Policy Letter 04-24, issued October 8, 2024, allows sea service toward RFPNW and AS-D to accrue concurrently with service toward the national AB endorsement. That policy letter is the reason the reduced requirements actually work for mariners who need both the national and international endorsements.
Now that Congress has made the AB reductions permanent, there is one step left. Policy Letter 04-24 still references Section 3534(j), the temporary provision, and it still carries a December 22, 2026, expiration date. The NMC's current AS-D checklist still reads "Use Only For Applications processed between 22 December 2023 and 22 December 2026."
The Coast Guard already has the model for this. CG-MMC Policy Letter 01-24 extended the MMC renewal grace period and included the language: "This policy letter is effective immediately and will remain in effect indefinitely."
Updating Policy Letter 04-24 the same way, referencing the permanent statute and removing the expiration, would complete what Congress started and what the Coast Guard was already ahead of.
