IIB 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3644 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
MARCH 22 (legislative day, MARCH 19), 2010 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
and Transportation 
AN ACT 
To direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion to establish education and watershed programs 
which advance environmental literacy, including pre-
paredness and adaptability for the likely impacts of cli-
mate change in coastal watershed regions. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ocean, Coastal, and 
Watershed Education Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The United States faces major challenges, 
such as mitigating and adapting to the impacts of 
climate change, stewarding critical coastal and ma-
rine resources including fish and wildlife habitat 
while sustaining the commercial and recreational ac-
tivities that depend on these resources, and improv-
ing resilience to natural disasters, that collectively 
threaten human health, sustainable economic devel-
opment, environmental quality, and national secu-
rity. 
(2) Communities in coastal watersheds are par-
ticularly vulnerable to these increasingly urgent, 
interconnected, and complex challenges and need 
support for teacher professional development and ex-
periential learning among students of all ages. 
(3) These challenges can be met with the help 
of comprehensive programs specifically targeted to 
engage coastal watershed communities, school-
children, and the general public to develop engaged 
and environmentally literate citizens who are better 
able to understand complex environmental issues, as-
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sess risk, evaluate proposed plans, and understand 
how individual decisions affect the environment at 
local, regional, national, and global scales. 
(4) The intrinsic social and conservation values 
of wildlife-dependent and other outdoor recreation 
can play an important role in outdoor educational 
programs that address the myriad of coastal and 
ocean concerns, as well as instill a sustainable con-
servation ethic that will enable them to face those 
challenges to the betterment of both the environment 
and coastal communities. 
(5) The economic importance of coastal areas 
and resources to the overall economy of the United 
States is significant. According to the U.S. Commis-
sion on Ocean Policy, coastal and ocean-related ac-
tivities support millions of American jobs and gen-
erate more than $1 trillion, or one tenth of the Na-
tion’s annual gross domestic product. Sustainable 
use of the Nation’s natural resources can provide 
additional economic opportunities to the United 
States economy. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to advance 
environmental literacy, develop public awareness and ap-
preciation of the economic, social, recreational, and envi-
ronmental benefits of coastal watersheds, and emphasize 
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stewardship and sustainable economic development of crit-
ical coastal and marine resources, including an under-
standing of how climate change is impacting those re-
sources, through the establishment of— 
(1) an Environmental Literacy Grant Program; 
and 
(2) regional programs under the B-WET Pro-
gram. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
(2) BAY-WATERSHED
EDUCATION.—The term 
‘‘bay-watershed education’’ means environmental 
education focused on watersheds, with an emphasis 
on stewardship and sustainable economic develop-
ment of critical coastal and marine resources, includ-
ing an understanding of how climate change is im-
pacting those resources. 
(3) B-WET PROGRAM.—The term ‘‘B-WET 
Program’’ means the Bay-Watershed Education and 
Training Program of the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration, as in effect immediately 
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before the enactment of this Act and modified under 
this Act or any subsequently enacted Act. 
(4) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-
ty’’ means a State agency, local agency, school dis-
trict, institution of higher education, or for-profit or 
non-profit nongovernmental organization, consor-
tium, or other entity that the Administrator finds 
has demonstrated expertise and experience in the de-
velopment of the institutional, intellectual, or policy 
resources to help environmental education become 
more effective and widely practiced. 
(5) ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION.—The term 
‘‘environmental education’’ means interdisciplinary 
formal and informal learning about the relevant 
interrelationships between dynamic environmental 
and human systems, including economic systems 
that depend on coastal, watershed and marine re-
sources for job creation and economic growth, that 
results in increasing the learner’s capacity for deci-
sionmaking, stewardship, and sustainable economic 
development of natural and community resources. 
(6) ENVIRONMENTAL
LITERACY.—The term 
‘‘environmental literacy’’ means the capacity to per-
ceive and interpret the relative health of environ-
mental systems and the interrelationships between 
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natural, economic, and social systems and tech-
nology, and to assess options and take appropriate 
action to maintain, restore, or improve the health of 
those systems and promote sustainable economic de-
velopment. 
(7) HIGH-LEVERAGE
PROJECTS.—The term 
‘‘high-leverage projects’’ means projects supported 
by grants authorized under this Act that use Fed-
eral, State and nongovernmental financial, technical, 
and other resources in such a manner that the po-
tential beneficial outcomes are highly magnified or 
enhanced. 
(8) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 
the several States of the United States, the District 
of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Com-
monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, any 
other territory or possession of the United States, 
and any Indian tribe. 
SEC. 4. ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall establish 
a national competitive grant program, to be known as the 
‘‘Environmental Literacy Grant Program’’, under which 
the Administrator shall provide, subject to the availability 
of appropriations, financial assistance to— 
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(1) expand the adoption of coastal, ocean, Great 
Lakes, and climate on all time scales education; 
(2) build administrative and technical capacity 
with coastal, ocean, and watershed communities and 
stakeholder groups to enhance their effectiveness; 
(3) encourage water-dependent, wildlife-depend-
ent, and other outdoor recreation, experiential learn-
ing, and hands-on involvement with coastal and wa-
tershed resources as a method of promoting steward-
ship and sustainable economic development of those 
resources; 
(4) develop and implement new approaches to 
advance coastal, ocean, Great Lakes, and climate on 
all time scales education and environmental literacy 
at national, regional, and local levels; and 
(5) encourage formal and informal environ-
mental education about the systemic interrelation-
ships between healthy coastal, watershed, and ma-
rine resources and sustainable economic systems 
that depend on such resources for job creation and 
economic development. 
(b) PRIORITIES.—In awarding grants under this sec-
tion, the Administrator shall give priority consideration to 
innovative, strategic, high-leverage projects that dem-
onstrate strong potential for being sustained in the future 
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