A bill to amend the Ports and Waterways Safety Act of 1972 to provide for the award of matching grants to municipalities and public agencies in the United States to enable those authorities to protect deep- draft commercial ports and land areas adjacent to those ports from fires, explosions, or other incidents causing damage in those ports, and for other purposes.

(Reported to House from the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries with amendment, H. Rept. 96-324 (Part I))

Amends the Ports and Waterways Safety Act of 1972 to add a new "Title II: Port Safety Planning and Improvement", to authorize the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating to make grants to municipalities and public agencies for the development and implementation of port safety plans to protect deep-draft ports from fires, explosions, or other damage.

Prescribes the minimum requirements for each such plan. Limits the total funds obligated for such grants and the amount of obligated funds available in any one fiscal year. Provides that no grant may exceed two-thirds of the cost of development of each such plan and 50 percent of the cost of implementing each such plan. Stipulates that no more than ten percent of such funds be allocated for a single port, with certain exceptions.

States that no municipality is eligible to receive more than two grants for port safety planning and no more than three grants for port safety implementation. Declares that no grants may be made for development of a plan after September 30, 1982, and no grant may be made for implementation of a plan after September 30, 1985.

Directs the Secretary to study and report to Congress, within two years of enactment of this Act, on the advisability of utilizing a national or local cost recapture mechanism to reimburse local municipalities or public agencies for a portion of their costs of providing port safety services through the collection of user fees.

Requires each municipality or public agency to keep records on the amount and disposition of such grants.

Permits the Secretary and Comptroller General of the United States to have access to such records for the purposes of audit and examination.

Authorizes appropriations through 1985 to carry out the purposes of this Act.

Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress on the administration of such program within six months after the end of each fiscal year.