“A bill to reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section expresses the sense of Congress that the Chesapeake Bay Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should be the primary representative of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
This section revises the Chesapeake Bay Office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by (1) eliminating the Office Director's authority to appoint personnel; (2) specifying that the Director is responsible for the Office's administration, operation, and implementation of the section; (3) replacing references to the Secretary of Commerce with the NOAA Administrator; (4) expanding the Office's coordination functions to represent NOAA programs and activities for the Chesapeake Bay Program relating to the Chesapeake Bay watershed in furtherance of NOAA's coastal resource stewardship mission, including new emphases on coastal hazards and climate change, education, and integrated ecosystem assessments; (5) redirecting coordination of NOAA activities from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Chesapeake Executive Council, as appropriate to further the section's purposes; (6) adding authority to perform functions necessary to support listed programs and activities; and (7) striking prior subsections (c) through (e). The section further establishes new programs and activities under the Office, including (1) requirements for peer review and scientific merit of projects; (2) consultation with the Chesapeake Executive Council to align with the Chesapeake Bay Agreement; (3) collaboration on a regional coastal observing system, including monitoring water quality impacts on living marine resources, new data technologies, and development of the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System integrated with the national Integrated Ocean Observing System to support the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail; and (4) a Chesapeake Bay watershed education and training program to expand prior NOAA efforts, enhance K-12 understanding of Bay resources, provide internships, meet Watershed Agreement goals, and award related grants. (As background, the Chesapeake Bay Office coordinates NOAA's research, monitoring, assessment, and management to support the intergovernmental Chesapeake Bay Program's restoration of the nation's largest estuary.)