Title: A bill to amend the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 to include California in the program, and for other purposes.
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
This bill reauthorizes through FY2025 and revises the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003, which provided grants to Maryland and Louisiana for a program to eradicate or control nutria (a type of rodent). The program also provided grants to restore marshland damaged by nutria.
This bill revises the grant program, including by expanding the program to include grants for eradicating nutria in any state that has demonstrated a need for the program as well as grants for restoring wetlands or agricultural lands damaged by nutria.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4403 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4403

  To amend the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 to include 
           California in the program, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 3, 2020

 Mr. Kennedy (for himself and Mrs. Feinstein) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment 
                            and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 to include 
           California in the program, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. NUTRIA ERADICATION.

    The Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-16) 
is amended--
            (1) in section 2--
                    (A) in subsection (a)--
                            (i) in paragraph (1), by striking 
                        ``Wetlands and tidal marshes of the Chesapeake 
                        Bay and in Louisiana'' and inserting 
                        ``Wetlands, tidal marshes, and agricultural 
                        lands'';
                            (ii) in paragraph (2), by striking ``in 
                        Maryland and Louisiana''; and
                            (iii) by amending paragraph (3) to read as 
                        follows:
            ``(3) Traditional harvest methods to control or eradicate 
        nutria have failed. Consequently, marsh loss, loss of public 
        and private wetlands, and loss of agricultural lands are 
        accelerating.''; and
                    (B) in subsection (b), by striking ``the State of 
                Maryland and the State of Louisiana'' and inserting 
                ``any State that has demonstrated the need''; and
            (2) in section 3--
                    (A) by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
    ``(a) Grant Authority.--The Secretary of the Interior (referred to 
in this Act as the `Secretary'), may provide financial assistance to a 
State, in an amount that is in proportion to the total impacted area of 
such State affected by nutria, that has demonstrated to the Secretary 
sufficient need for a program to implement measures to eradicate or 
control nutria and restore marshland, public and private wetlands, and 
agricultural lands damaged by nutria.'';
                    (B) by striking subsection (b);
                    (C) in subsection (d)--
                            (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ``the 
                        program may'' and inserting ``a State program 
                        referred to in subsection (a) may''; and
                            (ii) in paragraph (2), by striking ``the 
                        program may'' and inserting ``a State program 
                        referred to in subsection (a) may'';
                    (D) in subsection (e), by inserting ``to a State'' 
                after ``provided'';
                    (E) in subsection (f), by striking ``$4,000,000'' 
                and all that follows and inserting ``$12,000,000 for 
                each of fiscal years 2021 through 2025.''; and
                    (F) by redesignating subsections (c) through (f) as 
                subsections (b) through (e).
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