I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4458 
To establish a grant program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration to award grants to eligible entities for the purpose of 
carrying out projects on the conservation, restoration, or management 
of kelp forest ecosystems. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 16, 2021 
Mr. HUFFMAN (for himself, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. LIEU, Ms. LEE of California, 
Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. 
BONAMICI, and Ms. NORTON) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To establish a grant program within the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration to award grants to eligi-
ble entities for the purpose of carrying out projects on 
the conservation, restoration, or management of kelp for-
est ecosystems. 
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 ‘‘Keeping Ecostystems 
Living and Productive Act’’ or the ‘‘KELP Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR CONSERVING, RECOVERING, AND 
MAINTAINING KELP FOREST ECOSYSTEMS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Administrator of the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall es-
tablish a grant program (in this section referred to as the 
‘‘Program’’) under which the Administrator shall award 
grants to eligible entities described in subsection (b) to 
carry out projects relating to the conservation, restoration, 
or management of kelp forest ecosystems. 
(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—To be eligible for a grant 
under this section, an entity shall— 
(1) be a member of the fishing industry, an 
academic community, a relevant nonprofit organiza-
tion, a federally recognized Indian Tribe, or a rel-
evant State agency; 
(2) propose or be conducting a project relating 
to the conservation, restoration, or management of 
kelp forest ecosystems developed through consulta-
tion with any of the other entities described in para-
graph (1); and 
(3) submit to the Administrator an application 
describing such project at such time, in such man-
ner, and containing such information as the Admin-
istrator may require, including information about 
what criteria will be used to monitor and evaluate 
the effectiveness of the project. 
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(c) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.—The Administrator shall 
award grants to eligible entities for projects that— 
(1) address greatest relative regional declines in 
kelp forest ecosystems; 
(2) focus on— 
(A) long term ecosystem resilience; 
(B) long term socioeconomic resilience; 
(C) kelp forest seeding and connectivity; 
(D) urchin removal and predator control 
efforts; 
(E) monitoring and assessment of kelp for-
est ecosystems; or 
(F) other efforts to restore kelp forest eco-
systems and prevent large scale losses of kelp 
forests; or 
(3) are identified by Federal or State restora-
tion and management plans as focal areas for recov-
ery of kelp forests and associated species. 
(d) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), the total amount of Federal funding re-
ceived under the Program by an eligible entity may 
not exceed 85 percent of the total cost of the project 
for which a grant is awarded. For the purposes of 
this subparagraph, the non-Federal share of project 
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costs may be provided by in-kind contributions and 
other noncash support. 
(2) WAIVER.—The Administrator may waive all 
or part of the requirement in paragraph (1) if the 
Administrator determines that no reasonable means 
are available through which an eligible entity apply-
ing for a grant under this section can meet such re-
quirement and the probable benefit of such project 
outweighs the public interest in such requirement. 
(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 
(1) the term ‘‘academic community’’ means fac-
ulty, researchers, professors, and representatives of 
State-accredited colleges and universities; 
(2) the term ‘‘fishing industry’’ means proc-
essors, commercial fishermen, and recreational fish-
ermen; 
(3) the term ‘‘kelp forest ecosystem’’ means a 
naturally occurring, biotic system dominated by can-
opy forming benthic macroalgae and associated taxa; 
and 
(4) the term ‘‘nonprofit organization’’ means an 
organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax 
under section 501(a) of such Code. 
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(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator 
$50,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2022 through 
2026 to carry out this section. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the purposes of this 
Act and the grants authorized by section 2 are to support 
wild kelp forest ecosystems and restoration of wild kelp 
to enable long term recovery of naturally functioning kelp 
forest ecosystems that do not involve commercial or 
mechanized harvesting. 
Æ 
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