I

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 583

To prohibit activities other than certain required environmental or oceanographic studies under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act within

the outer continental shelf off the State of Florida, and for other

purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 26, 1993

Mr. GOSS (for himself, Ms. THURMAN, Mr. STEARNS, Mr. MCCOLLUM, Mr.

BILIRAKIS, Mr. BACCHUS of Florida, Ms. MEEK, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN,

Mr. DEUTSCH, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mr. SHAW, and Mr. JOHNSTON

of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to the

Committees on Natural Resources and Merchant Marine and Fisheries

A BILL

To prohibit activities other than certain required environmental or oceanographic studies under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act within the outer continental

shelf off the State of Florida, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. PROHIBITION OF ACTIVITIES OTHER THAN EN2 VIRONMENTAL OR OCEANOGRAPHIC STUD3 IES.

4 (a) PROHIBITION.—The Secretary of the Interior (in

5 this Act referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall not—

6 (1) conduct a lease sale; or

7 (2) issue any new leases,

8 in any area of the outer continental shelf off the State

9 of Florida, between the seaward lateral boundary between

10 Florida and Alabama and the seaward lateral boundary

11 between Florida and Georgia.

12 (b) EFFECTIVE PERIOD.—(1) The prohibition in sub13 section (a) shall remain in effect until the later of—

14 (A) January 1, 2002; or

15 (B) 180 days after the date on which the Sec16 retary submits to the Congress and to the Governor

17 of the State of Florida a report documenting the

18 completion of the studies described in subsection (c).

19 (2) Each study that is documented in a report de20 scribed in paragraph (1)(B) shall be reviewed, before sub21 mission of the report, by at least 3 scientists who—

22 (A) shall be nominated by the Florida Academy

23 of Sciences, and approved by the Secretary and the

24 Governor of the State of Florida;

25 (B) are not employees of the Department of the

26 Interior; and
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1 (C) are well qualified in the scientific disciplines

2 required for performance of the particular study or

3 studies that they review.

4 (3) A report described in paragraph (1)(B) shall in5 clude each reviewer’s written evaluations of each study’s

6 methodology and results.

7 (c) STUDIES.—The Secretary shall undertake, di8 rectly or by contract, ecological and socioeconomic studies,

9 physical oceanographic studies, endangered and threat10 ened species and marine mammal surveys, and other envi11 ronmental studies, including fieldwork and correlation of

12 existing data and information, sufficient to obtain infor13 mation about all significant conditions, processes, re14 sources, and environments that may influence or be influ15 enced by any of the activities described in subsection (a).

16 SEC. 2. CANCELLATION OF LEASES.

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 10 days after the

18 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall com19 mence the process of canceling, and thereafter shall pro20 ceed with dispatch to cancel, all leases in the area south

21 of 26 degrees north latitude and east of 86 degrees west

22 longitude that were issued under the Outer Continental

23 Shelf Lands Act on or before the date of enactment of

24 this Act.
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1 (b) ANNUAL REPORT.—The Secretary shall submit

2 a report to Congress annually, on the anniversary of the

3 date of enactment of this Act, on the status of the can4 cellation proceedings, until all of the leases described in

5 subsection (a) have been canceled.

6 SEC. 3. COMPENSATION.

7 (a) AMOUNT OF COMPENSATION.—For any lease that

8 is canceled pursuant to section 2, to the extent that it is

9 determined that the lessee is entitled to compensation, the

10 lessee shall receive compensation as provided in section

11 5(a)(2)(C) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43

12 U.S.C. 1334(a)(2)(C)).

13 (b) PAYMENT BY THE UNITED STATES.—All of the

14 compensation to which a lessee may be entitled under sub15 section (a) shall be paid out of the Treasury of the United

16 States, and the State of Florida shall incur no cost or

17 other liability of any kind as a consequence of cancellation

18 of any lease under this Act.

19 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

20 There are authorized to be appropriated $1,000,000

21 for each of fiscal years 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998,

22 1999, 2000, and 2001, for the purpose of conducting or

23 contracting for performance of the studies required by sec24 tion 1(c), to remain available until expended.

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