I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1934

To amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to establish the

John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 25, 1999

Mr. SAXTON (for himself, Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA, and Mr. LOBIONDO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources

A BILL

To amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to

establish the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue

Assistance Grant Program.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Marine Mammal Res5 cue Assistance Act of 1999’’.
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1 SEC. 2. JOHN H. PRESCOTT MARINE MAMMAL RESCUE AS2 SISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM.

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title IV of the Marine Mammal

4 Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1371 et seq.) is

5 amended—

6 (1) by redesignating sections 408 and 409 as

7 sections 409 and 410, respectively; and

8 (2) by inserting after section 407 the following:

9 ‘‘SEC. 408. JOHN H. PRESCOTT MARINE MAMMAL RESCUE

10 ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM.

11 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the availability of ap12 propriations, the Secretary shall conduct a grant program

13 to be known as the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal

14 Rescue Assistance Grant Program, to provide grants to

15 eligible stranding centers and eligible stranding network

16 participants for the recovery or treatment of marine mam17 mals, the collection of health information relating to ma18 rine mammals, and the operation of facilities for those

19 purposes.

20 ‘‘(b) APPLICATION.—To receive a grant under this

21 section, a stranding center or stranding network partici22 pant shall submit an application in such form and manner

23 as the Secretary may prescribe.

24 ‘‘(c) ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA.—The Secretary, in con25 sultation with stranding network participants, shall estab26 lish criteria for eligibility for grants under this section.
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1 ‘‘(d) LIMITATION.—The amount of a grant under this

2 section shall not exceed $100,000.

3 ‘‘(e) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—The non-Federal

4 share of an activity conducted with a grant under this sec5 tion shall be 25 percent of the cost of that activity.

6 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

7 ‘‘(1) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ has

8 the meaning given that term in section 3(12)(A).

9 ‘‘(2) STRANDING CENTER DEFINED.—The term

10 ‘stranding center’ means a center with respect to

11 which the Secretary has entered into an agreement

12 referred to in section 403 to take marine mammals

13 under section 109(h)(1) in response to a stranding.

14 ‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

15 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry

16 out this section $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001

17 through 2003.’’.

18 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 3(12)(B)

19 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C.

20 1362(12)(B)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(other than sec21 tion 408)’’ after ‘‘title IV’’.

22 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents

23 in the first section of the Marine Mammal Protection Act

24 of 1972 (86 Stat. 1027) is amended by striking the items
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1 relating to sections 408 and 409 and inserting the fol2 lowing:

‘‘Sec. 408. John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program.

‘‘Sec. 409. Authorization of appropriations.

‘‘Sec. 410. Definitions.’’.

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