I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4789
To amend the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Authoriza-
tion Act of 1992 to revise and enhance authorities, and to authorize
appropriations, for the Chesapeake Bay Office, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 29, 2000
Mr. CARDIN (for himself, Mr. HOYER, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. WYNN, Mr. EHR-
LICH, and Mr. GILCHREST) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Resources
A BILL
To amend the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration Authorization Act of 1992 to revise and enhance
authorities, and to authorize appropriations, for the
Chesapeake Bay Office, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘NOAA Chesapeake
Bay Office Reauthorization Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. CHESAPEAKE BAY OFFICE.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Section 307(a) of the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Author-
ization Act of 1992 (15 U.S.C. 1511d(a)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Estuarine
Resources’’; and
(2) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the
following:
‘‘(2) ADMINISTRATION.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Beginning not later
than 60 days after the date of enactment of
this subparagraph, the Office shall be adminis-
tered by the Office of the Under Secretary of
Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere.
‘‘(B) DIRECTOR.—The Secretary of Com-
merce shall appoint as Director of the Office an
individual who has knowledge of and experience
in research or resource management efforts in
the Chesapeake Bay.’’.
(b) FUNCTIONS.—Section 307(b) of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Authorization
Act of 1992 (15 U.S.C. 1511d(b)) is amended—
(1) by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the
following:
‘‘(3) coordinate the programs and activities of
the various organizations within the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration and the
Chesapeake Bay Regional Sea Grant Programs,
including—
‘‘(A) programs and activities in—
‘‘(i) coastal and estuarine research,
monitoring, and assessment;
‘‘(ii) fisheries research and stock as-
sessments;
‘‘(iii) data management;
‘‘(iv) remote sensing;
‘‘(v) coastal management;
‘‘(vi) habitat conservation and restora-
tion; and
‘‘(vii) atmospheric deposition; and
‘‘(B) programs and activities of the Coop-
erative Oxford Laboratory of the National
Ocean Service with respect to—
‘‘(i) nonindigenous species;
‘‘(ii) marine species pathology;
‘‘(iii) human pathogens in marine en-
vironments; and
‘‘(iv) ecosystems health;’’; and
(2) in paragraph (7), by striking the period at
the end and inserting the following: ‘‘, which report
shall include an action plan consisting of—
‘‘(A) a list of recommended research, moni-
toring, and data collection activities necessary
to continue implementation of the strategy de-
scribed in paragraph (2); and
‘‘(B) proposals for—
‘‘(i) continuing and new National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration ac-
tivities in the Chesapeake Bay; and
‘‘(ii) the integration of those activities
with the activities of the partners in the
Chesapeake Bay Program to meet the
commitments of the Chesapeake 2000
agreement and subsequent agreements.’’.
(c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 307 of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Au-
thorization Act of 1992 (15 U.S.C. 1511d) is amended
by striking the section heading and inserting the following:
‘‘SEC. 307. CHESAPEAKE BAY OFFICE.’’.
SEC. 3. MULTIPLE SPECIES MANAGEMENT STRATEGY;
CHESAPEAKE BAY FISHERY AND HABITAT
RESTORATION SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion Authorization Act of 1992 is amended by inserting
after section 307 (15 U.S.C. 1511d) the following:
‘‘SEC. 307A. MULTIPLE SPECIES MANAGEMENT STRATEGY.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after
the date of enactment of this section, the Director of the
Chesapeake Bay Office of the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration shall commence a 5-year study,
in cooperation with the scientific community of the Chesa-
peake Bay and appropriate Federal agencies—
‘‘(1) to determine and expand the under-
standing of the role and response of living resources
in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem; and
‘‘(2) to develop a multiple species management
strategy for the Chesapeake Bay.
‘‘(b) REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF STUDY.—In order to
improve the understanding necessary for the development
of the strategy under subsection (a), the study shall—
‘‘(1) determine the current status and trends of
fish and shellfish that live in the Chesapeake Bay es-
tuaries and are selected for study;
‘‘(2) evaluate and assess interactions among the
fish and shellfish described in paragraph (1) and
other living resources, with particular attention to
the impact of changes within and among trophic lev-
els; and
‘‘(3) recommend management actions to opti-
mize the return of a healthy and balanced ecosystem
for the Chesapeake Bay.
‘‘SEC. 307B. CHESAPEAKE BAY FISHERY AND HABITAT RES-
TORATION SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Chesapeake
Bay Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-
ministration (referred to in this section as the ‘Director’),
in cooperation with the Chesapeake Executive Council (as
defined in section 307(e)), shall carry out a community-
based fishery and habitat restoration small grants and
technical assistance program in the Chesapeake Bay wa-
tershed.
‘‘(b) PROJECTS.—
‘‘(1) SUPPORT.—The Director shall make
grants under the program under subsection (a) to
pay the Federal share of the cost of projects that
are carried out by eligible entities described in sub-
section (c) for the restoration of fisheries and habi-
tats in the Chesapeake Bay.
‘‘(2) FEDERAL
SHARE.—The Federal share
under paragraph (1) shall not exceed 75 percent.
‘‘(3) TYPES OF PROJECTS.—Projects for which
grants may be made under the program include—
‘‘(A) the improvement of fish passageways;
‘‘(B) the creation of natural or artificial
reefs or substrata for habitats;
‘‘(C) the restoration of wetland or sea
grass;
‘‘(D) the production of oysters for restora-
tion projects; and
‘‘(E) the restoration of contaminated habi-
tats in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
‘‘(c) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—The following entities are
eligible to receive grants under the program under this
section:
‘‘(1) The government of a political subdivision
of a State in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the
government of the District of Columbia.
‘‘(2) An organization in the Chesapeake Bay
watershed (such as an educational institution or a
community organization) that is described in section
501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and is
exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of that
Code.
‘‘(d) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS.—The Director
may prescribe any additional requirements, including pro-
cedures, that the Director considers necessary to carry out
the program under this section.
‘‘SEC. 307C. COASTAL PREDICTION CENTER.
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after
the date of enactment of this section, the Director
of the Chesapeake Bay Office of the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration (referred to in
this section as the ‘Director’), in collaboration with
regional scientific institutions, shall establish a
coastal prediction center for the Chesapeake Bay
(referred to in this section as the ‘center’).
‘‘(2) PURPOSE OF CENTER.—The center shall
serve as a knowledge bank for—
‘‘(A) assembling, integrating, and modeling
coastal information and data from appropriate
government agencies and scientific institutions;
‘‘(B) interpreting the data; and
‘‘(C) organizing the data into predictive
products that are useful to policy makers, re-
source managers, scientists, and the public.
‘‘(b) ACTIVITIES.—
‘‘(1) INFORMATION
AND
PREDICTION
SYS-
TEM.—The center shall develop an Internet-based
information system for integrating, interpreting, and
disseminating coastal information and predictions
concerning—
‘‘(A) climate;
‘‘(B) land use;
‘‘(C) coastal pollution;
‘‘(D) coastal environmental quality;
‘‘(E) ecosystem health and performance;
‘‘(F) aquatic living resources and habitat
conditions; and
‘‘(G) weather, tides, currents, and circula-
tion that affect the distribution of sediments,
nutrients, and organisms, coastline erosion, and
related physical and chemical events within the
Chesapeake Bay and the tributaries of the
Chesapeake Bay.
‘‘(2) AGREEMENTS TO PROVIDE DATA, INFOR-
MATION, AND SUPPORT.—The Director may enter
into agreements with other entities of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, other ap-
propriate Federal, State, and local government agen-
cies, and academic institutions, to provide and inter-
pret data and information, and provide appropriate
support, relating to the activities of the center.
‘‘(3) AGREEMENTS RELATING TO INFORMATION
PRODUCTS.—The Director may enter into grants,
contracts, and interagency agreements with eligible
entities for the collection, processing, analysis, inter-
pretation, and electronic publication of information
products for the center.’’.
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 307 of the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration Authorization Act
of 1992 (15 U.S.C. 1511d) is amended by striking sub-
section (d) and inserting the following:
‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be
appropriated to the Department of Commerce for
the Chesapeake Bay Office $6,000,000 for each of
fiscal years 2001 through 2004.
‘‘(2) AMOUNTS FOR NEW PROGRAMS.—Of the
amount authorized to be appropriated for each fiscal
year under paragraph (1)—
‘‘(A) not more than $2,500,000 shall be
available to carry out section 307A;
‘‘(B) not more than $1,000,000 shall be
available to carry out section 307B; and
‘‘(C) not more than $500,000 shall be
available to carry out section 307C.’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 2 of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine
Fisheries Program Authorization Act (Public Law 98–
210; 97 Stat. 1409) is amended by striking subsection (e)
(106 Stat. 4285).
SEC. 5. TECHNICAL CORRECTION.
Section 307(b) of the National Oceanic and Atmos-
pheric Administration Authorization Act of 1992 (15
U.S.C. 1511d(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘Chesapeake
Bay Executive Council’’ and inserting ‘‘Chesapeake Exec-
utive Council’’.
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