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Union Calendar No. 139

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1934

[Report No. 106–242]

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

JULY 20, 1999

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on May 25, 1999]

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,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Marine Mammal Rescue

3 Assistance Act of 1999’’.

4 SEC. 2. JOHN H. PRESCOTT MARINE MAMMAL RESCUE AS5 SISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM.

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

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

8 amended—

9 (1) by redesignating sections 408 and 409 as sec10 tions 409 and 410, respectively; and

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

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

13 ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM.

14 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) Subject to the availability of

15 appropriations, the Secretary shall conduct a grant pro16 gram to be known as the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal

17 Rescue Assistance Grant Program, to provide grants to eli18 gible stranding network participants for the recovery or

19 treatment of marine mammals, the collection of data from

20 living or dead marine mammals for scientific research re21 garding marine mammal health, and facility operation

22 costs that are directly related to those purposes.

23 ‘‘(2)(A) The Secretary shall ensure that, to the greatest

24 extent practicable, funds provided as grants under this sub25 section are distributed equitably among the designated

26 stranding regions.
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1 ‘‘(B) In determining priorities among such regions, the

2 Secretary may consider—

3 ‘‘(i) any episodic stranding or any mortality

4 event other than an event described in section 410(6),

5 that occurred in any region in the preceding year;

6 and

7 ‘‘(ii) data regarding average annual strandings

8 and mortality events per region.

9 ‘‘(b) APPLICATION.—To receive a grant under this sec10 tion, a stranding network participant shall submit an ap11 plication in such form and manner as the Secretary may

12 prescribe.

13 ‘‘(c) ADVISORY GROUP.—

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in consulta15 tion with the Marine Mammal Commission, shall es16 tablish an advisory group in accordance with this

17 subsection to advise the Secretary regarding the im18 plementation of this section, including the award of

19 grants under this section.

20 ‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.—The advisory group shall

21 consist of a representative from each of the designated

22 stranding regions and other individuals who rep23 resent public and private organizations that are ac24 tively involved in rescue, rehabilitation, release, sci-
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1 entific research, and forensic science regarding

2 stranded marine mammals.

3 ‘‘(3) PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.—

4 ‘‘(A) MEETINGS.—The advisory group

5 shall—

6 ‘‘(i) ensure that each meeting of the ad7 visory group is open to the public; and

8 ‘‘(ii) provide, at each meeting of the

9 advisory group, an opportunity for inter10 ested persons to present oral or written

11 statements concerning items on the agenda

12 for the meeting.

13 ‘‘(B) NOTICE.—The Secretary shall provide

14 to the public timely notice of each meeting of the

15 advisory group.

16 ‘‘(C) MINUTES.—The Secretary shall keep

17 and make available to the public minutes of each

18 meeting of the advisory group.

19 ‘‘(4) EXEMPTION.—The Federal Advisory Com20 mittee Act (5 App. U.S.C.) shall not apply to the es21 tablishment and activities of an advisory group in

22 accordance with this subsection.

23 ‘‘(d) LIMITATION.—The amount of a grant under this

24 section shall not exceed $100,000.

25 ‘‘(e) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—
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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The non-Federal share of the

2 costs of an activity conducted with a grant under this

3 section shall be 25 percent of such costs.

4 ‘‘(2) IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS.—The Secretary

5 may apply to the non-Federal share of an activity

6 conducted with a grant under this section the amount

7 of funds, and the fair market value of property and

8 services, provided by non-Federal sources and used for

9 the activity.

10 ‘‘(f) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—Of amounts avail11 able each fiscal year to carry out this section, the Secretary

12 may expend not more than 6 percent to pay the administra13 tive expenses necessary to carry out this section.

14 ‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

15 ‘‘(1) DESIGNATED STRANDING REGION.—The

16 term ‘designated stranding region’ means a geo17 graphic region designated by the Secretary for pur18 poses of administration of this title.

19 ‘‘(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ has the

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

21 ‘‘(h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There

22 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry

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

24 through 2003, to remain available until expended.’’.
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1 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 3(12)(B) of

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

3 1362(12)(B)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(other than section

4 408)’’ after ‘‘title IV’’.

5 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents in

6 the first section of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of

7 1972 (86 Stat. 1027) is amended by striking the items relat8 ing to sections 408 and 409 and inserting the following:

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

‘‘Sec. 409. Authorization of appropriations.

‘‘Sec. 410. Definitions.’’.

Union Calendar No. 139

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1934

[Report No. 106–242]

A BILL

To amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of

Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program.1972 to establish the John H. Prescott Marine

JULY 20, 1999

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union,