“To allow the Secretary of Commerce to establish a Coastal and Estuarine Resilience and Restoration Program, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program—under which the Secretary of Commerce provides matching grants to states, localities, and other eligible entities to acquire coastal and estuarine lands or easements for conservation—by (1) renaming it the Coastal and Estuarine Resilience and Restoration Program; (2) revising subsection (a) to specify program purposes of protecting significant coastal and estuarine areas threatened by development or restorable for ecological function and climate mitigation, and restoring degraded or developed property to enhance ecological function, enable shoreline migration, and protect communities; (3) expanding grant eligibility under subsections (b) and (c) to qualified non-governmental organizations (NGOs); (4) in subsection (c), replacing required consultation with coordination for long-term conservation plans, changing required identification of priority areas to discretionary, establishing new priorities in paragraph (7) for lands benefiting underserved communities, facing imminent threats or climate impacts, or mitigating sea level rise and carbon storage, and extending the conservation plan update cycle to every five years (from triennially); (5) in subsection (f), authorizing waivers of nonfederal matching funds for U.S. territories unable to provide them and expanding acquisition criteria to consider ecosystem services value (e.g., storm buffers, habitat, carbon storage); (6) in subsection (g), increasing the portion of funds reserved for National Estuarine Research Reserve acquisitions to 20% (from 15%) unless no such opportunities exist; (7) permitting qualified NGOs to hold acquired interests in perpetuity under subsection (i); (8) redesignating subsections (k) and (l) as (l) and (m); and (9) adding subsection (k) to establish NGO eligibility requirements, including state program manager support, public access (or justified restrictions), and deed provisions for property transfer upon organizational dissolution.
This section directs the Secretary of Commerce, not later than five years after enactment, to initiate the designation process for at least five new National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs) in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS)—a network of 30 protected estuarine areas used for research, education, monitoring, and stewardship—and, not later than eight years after enactment, to designate at least five new reserves, prioritizing areas to ensure one reserve per coastal state and representation across biogeographic regions; requires annual reports to Congress on progress beginning one year after enactment; and preserves existing uses such as commercial and recreational fishing, hunting, and cultural activities absent contrary management plans. This section further amends section 315 of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (CZMA) as follows: (1) adds guidelines requiring coordinated, system-wide monitoring of climate change impacts (including on lake and sea levels); (2) expands eligible uses of financial assistance grants to include construction and maintenance of facilities, as well as research, monitoring, stewardship, training, and education; (3) establishes system-wide programs for centralized data management and dissemination, collaborative research grants, use of reserves as NOAA fellowship sites and living laboratories, and the Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Research Fellowship Program; and (4) requires each reserve to maintain place-based programs for research and monitoring networks, education and training, stewardship and restoration, coastal training for managers, priority land acquisition for resilience, facilities, and engagement of Tribes, Indigenous, and historic heritage communities. This section authorizes $47 million annually for NERRS grants for FY2025 through FY2029 and makes conforming amendments, including adding a definition of "National Estuarine Research Reserve" to CZMA section 304.