IB
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) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Re-
sources
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Marine Mammal Rescue
Assistance Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. JOHN H. PRESCOTT MARINE MAMMAL RESCUE AS-
SISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title IV of the Marine Mammal
Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1371 et seq.) is
amended—
(1) by redesignating sections 408 and 409 as sec-
tions 409 and 410, respectively; and
(2) by inserting after section 407 the following:
‘‘SEC. 408. JOHN H. PRESCOTT MARINE MAMMAL RESCUE
ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—(1) Subject to the availability of
appropriations, the Secretary shall conduct a grant pro-
gram to be known as the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal
Rescue Assistance Grant Program, to provide grants to eli-
gible stranding network participants for the recovery or
treatment of marine mammals, the collection of data from
living or dead marine mammals for scientific research re-
garding marine mammal health, and facility operation
costs that are directly related to those purposes.
‘‘(2)(A) The Secretary shall ensure that, to the greatest
extent practicable, funds provided as grants under this sub-
section are distributed equitably among the designated
stranding regions.
‘‘(B) In determining priorities among such regions, the
Secretary may consider—
‘‘(i) any episodic stranding or any mortality
event other than an event described in section 410(6),
that occurred in any region in the preceding year;
and
‘‘(ii) data regarding average annual strandings
and mortality events per region.
‘‘(b) APPLICATION.—To receive a grant under this sec-
tion, a stranding network participant shall submit an ap-
plication in such form and manner as the Secretary may
prescribe.
‘‘(c) ADVISORY GROUP.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in consulta-
tion with the Marine Mammal Commission, shall es-
tablish an advisory group in accordance with this
subsection to advise the Secretary regarding the im-
plementation of this section, including the award of
grants under this section.
‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.—The advisory group shall
consist of a representative from each of the designated
stranding regions and other individuals who rep-
resent public and private organizations that are ac-
tively involved in rescue, rehabilitation, release, sci-
entific research, and forensic science regarding
stranded marine mammals.
‘‘(3) PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.—
‘‘(A) 
MEETINGS.—The 
advisory 
group
shall—
‘‘(i) ensure that each meeting of the ad-
visory group is open to the public; and
‘‘(ii) provide, at each meeting of the
advisory group, an opportunity for inter-
ested persons to present oral or written
statements concerning items on the agenda
for the meeting.
‘‘(B) NOTICE.—The Secretary shall provide
to the public timely notice of each meeting of the
advisory group.
‘‘(C) MINUTES.—The Secretary shall keep
and make available to the public minutes of each
meeting of the advisory group.
‘‘(4) EXEMPTION.—The Federal Advisory Com-
mittee Act (5 App. U.S.C.) shall not apply to the es-
tablishment and activities of an advisory group in
accordance with this subsection.
‘‘(d) LIMITATION.—The amount of a grant under this
section shall not exceed $100,000.
‘‘(e) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The non-Federal share of the
costs of an activity conducted with a grant under this
section shall be 25 percent of such costs.
‘‘(2) IN-KIND
CONTRIBUTIONS.—The Secretary
may apply to the non-Federal share of an activity
conducted with a grant under this section the amount
of funds, and the fair market value of property and
services, provided by non-Federal sources and used for
the activity.
‘‘(f) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—Of amounts avail-
able each fiscal year to carry out this section, the Secretary
may expend not more than 6 percent to pay the administra-
tive expenses necessary to carry out this section.
‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
‘‘(1) DESIGNATED
STRANDING
REGION.—The
term ‘designated stranding region’ means a geo-
graphic region designated by the Secretary for pur-
poses of administration of this title.
‘‘(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ has the
meaning given that term in section 3(12)(A).
‘‘(h) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There
are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry
out this section $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2001
through 2003, to remain available until expended.’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 3(12)(B) of
the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C.
1362(12)(B)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(other than section
408)’’ after ‘‘title IV’’.
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents in
the first section of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of
1972 (86 Stat. 1027) is amended by striking the items relat-
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
1972 to establish the John H. Prescott Marine
Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program.
JULY 20, 1999
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union,
and ordered to be printed