Volume 152, No. 123 covering the 2nd Session of the 109th Congress (2005 - 2006) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“MARINE DEBRIS RESEARCH, PREVENTION, AND REDUCTION ACT” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H7632-H7635 on Sept. 27, 2006.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
MARINE DEBRIS RESEARCH, PREVENTION, AND REDUCTION ACT
Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 362) to establish a program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Coast Guard to help identify, determine sources of, assess, reduce, and prevent marine debris and its adverse impacts on marine environment and navigation safety, in coordination with non-Federal entities, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
S. 362
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act''.
SEC. 2. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are--
(1) to help identify, determine sources of, assess, reduce, and prevent marine debris and its adverse impacts on the marine environment and navigation safety;
(2) to reactivate the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee; and
(3) to develop a Federal marine debris information clearinghouse.
SEC. 3. NOAA MARINE DEBRIS PREVENTION AND REMOVAL PROGRAM.
(a) Establishment of Program.--There is established, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a Marine Debris Prevention and Removal Program to reduce and prevent the occurrence and adverse impacts of marine debris on the marine environment and navigation safety.
(b) Program Components.--The Administrator, acting through the Program and subject to the availability of appropriations, shall carry out the following activities:
(1) Mapping, identification, impact assessment, removal, and prevention.--The Administrator shall, in consultation with relevant Federal agencies, undertake marine debris mapping, identification, impact assessment, prevention, and removal efforts, with a focus on marine debris posing a threat to living marine resources and navigation safety, including--
(A) the establishment of a process, building on existing information sources maintained by Federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard, for cataloguing and maintaining an inventory of marine debris and its impacts found in the navigable waters of the United States and the United States exclusive economic zone, including location, material, size, age, and origin, and impacts on habitat, living marine resources, human health, and navigation safety;
(B) measures to identify the origin, location, and projected movement of marine debris within United States navigable waters, the United States exclusive economic zone, and the high seas, including the use of oceanographic, atmospheric, satellite, and remote sensing data; and
(C) development and implementation of strategies, methods, priorities, and a plan for preventing and removing marine debris from United States navigable waters and within the United States exclusive economic zone, including development of local or regional protocols for removal of derelict fishing gear and other marine debris.
(2) Reducing and preventing loss of gear.--The Administrator shall improve efforts to reduce adverse impacts of lost and discarded fishing gear on living marine resources and navigation safety, including--
(A) research and development of alternatives to gear posing threats to the marine environment, and methods for marking gear used in specific fisheries to enhance the tracking, recovery, and identification of lost and discarded gear; and
(B) development of effective nonregulatory measures and incentives to cooperatively reduce the volume of lost and discarded fishing gear and to aid in its recovery.
(3) Outreach.--The Administrator shall undertake outreach and education of the public and other stakeholders, such as the fishing industry, fishing gear manufacturers, and other marine-dependent industries, and the plastic and waste management industries, on sources of marine debris, threats associated with marine debris and approaches to identify, determine sources of, assess, reduce, and prevent marine debris and its adverse impacts on the marine environment and navigational safety, including outreach and education activities through public-private initiatives. The Administrator shall coordinate outreach and education activities under this paragraph with any outreach programs conducted under section 2204 of the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act of 1987 (33 U.S.C. 1915).
(c) Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts.--
(1) In general.--The Administrator, acting through the Program, shall enter into cooperative agreements and contracts and provide financial assistance in the form of grants for projects to accomplish the purpose set forth in section 2(1).
(2) Grant cost sharing requirement.--
(A) In general.--Except as provided in subparagraph (B), Federal funds for any grant under this section may not exceed 50 percent of the total cost of such project. For purposes of this subparagraph, the non-Federal share of project costs may be provided by in-kind contributions and other noncash support.
(B) Waiver.--The Administrator may waive all or part of the matching requirement under subparagraph (A) if the Administrator determines that no reasonable means are available through which applicants can meet the matching requirement and the probable benefit of such project outweighs the public interest in such matching requirement.
(3) Amounts paid and services rendered under consent.--
(A) Consent decrees and orders.--If authorized by the Administrator or the Attorney General, as appropriate, the non-Federal share of the cost of a project carried out under this Act may include money paid pursuant to, or the value of any in-kind service performed under, an administrative order on consent or judicial consent decree that will remove or prevent marine debris.
(B) Other decrees and orders.--The non-Federal share of the cost of a project carried out under this Act may not include any money paid pursuant to, or the value of any in-kind service performed under, any other administrative order or court order.
(4) Eligibility.--Any State, local, or tribal government whose activities affect research or regulation of marine debris, and any institution of higher education, nonprofit organization, or commercial organization with expertise in a field related to marine debris, is eligible to submit to the Administrator a marine debris proposal under the grant program.
(5) Grant criteria and guidelines.--Within 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall promulgate necessary guidelines for implementation of the grant program, including development of criteria and priorities for grants. In developing those guidelines, the Administrator shall consult with--
(A) the Interagency Committee;
(B) regional fishery management councils established under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act
(16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.);
(C) State, regional, and local governmental entities with marine debris experience;
(D) marine-dependent industries; and
(E) nongovernmental organizations involved in marine debris research, prevention, or removal activities.
(6) Project review and approval.--The Administrator shall--
(A) review each marine debris project proposal to determine if it meets the grant criteria and supports the goals of this Act;
(B) after considering any written comments and recommendations based on the review, approve or disapprove the proposal; and
(C) provide notification of that approval or disapproval to the person who submitted the proposal.
(7) Project reporting.--Each grantee under this section shall provide periodic reports as required by the Administrator. Each report shall include all information required by the Administrator for evaluating the progress and success in meeting its stated goals, and impact of the grant activities on the marine debris problem.
SEC. 4. COAST GUARD PROGRAM.
(a) Strategy.--The Commandant of the Coast Guard, in consultation with the Interagency Committee, shall--
(1) take actions to reduce violations of and improve implementation of MARPOL Annex V and the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) with respect to the discard of plastics and other garbage from vessels;
(2) take actions to cost-effectively monitor and enforce compliance with MARPOL Annex V and the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.), including through cooperation and coordination with other Federal and State enforcement programs;
(3) take actions to improve compliance with requirements under MARPOL Annex V and section 6 of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. 1905) that all United States ports and terminals maintain and monitor the adequacy of receptacles for the disposal of plastics and other garbage, including through promoting voluntary government-industry partnerships;
(4) develop and implement a plan, in coordination with industry and recreational boaters, to improve ship-board waste management, including recordkeeping, and access to waste reception facilities for ship-board waste;
(5) take actions to improve international cooperation to reduce marine debris; and
(6) establish a voluntary reporting program for commercial vessel operators and recreational boaters to report incidents of damage to vessels and disruption of navigation caused by marine debris, and observed violations of laws and regulations relating to the disposal of plastics and other marine debris.
(b) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commandant of the Coast Guard shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a report evaluating the Coast Guard's progress in implementing subsection (a).
(c) External Evaluation and Recommendations on Annex V.--
(1) In general.--The Commandant of the Coast Guard shall enter into an arrangement with the National Research Council under which the National Research Council shall submit, by not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act and in consultation with the Commandant and the Interagency Committee, to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a comprehensive report on the effectiveness of international and national measures to prevent and reduce marine debris and its impact.
(2) Contents.--The report required under paragraph (1) shall include--
(A) an evaluation of international and domestic implementation of MARPOL Annex V and the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) and recommendations of cost-effective actions to improve implementation and compliance with such measures to reduce impacts of marine debris;
(B) recommendation of additional Federal or international actions, including changes to international and domestic law or regulations, needed to further reduce the impacts of marine debris; and
(C) evaluation of the role of floating fish aggregation devices in the generation of marine debris and existing legal mechanisms to reduce impacts of such debris, focusing on impacts in the Western Pacific and Central Pacific regions.
SEC. 5. INTERAGENCY COORDINATION.
(a) Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee.--Section 2203 of the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act of 1987 (33 U.S.C. 1914) is amended--
(1) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:
``(a) Establishment of Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee.--There is established an Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee to coordinate a comprehensive program of marine debris research and activities among Federal agencies, in cooperation and coordination with non-governmental organizations, industry, universities, and research institutions, States, Indian tribes, and other nations, as appropriate.''; and
(2) in subsection (c), by inserting ``public, interagency'' before ``forum''.
(b) Definition of Marine Debris.--The Administrator and the Commandant of the Coast Guard, in consultation with the Interagency Committee established under subsection (a), shall jointly develop and promulgate through regulations a definition of the term ``marine debris'' for purposes of this Act.
(c) Reports.--
(1) Interagency report on marine debris impacts and strategies.--
(A) In general.--Not later than 12 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Interagency Committee, through the chairperson, shall complete and submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives a report that--
(i) identifies sources of marine debris;
(ii) the ecological and economic impact of marine debris;
(iii) alternatives for reducing, mitigating, preventing, and controlling the harmful affects of marine debris;
(iv) the social and economic costs and benefits of such alternatives; and
(v) recommendations to reduce marine debris both domestically and internationally.
(B) Recommendations.--The report shall provide strategies and recommendations on--
(i) establishing priority areas for action to address leading problems relating to marine debris;
(ii) developing strategies and approaches to prevent, reduce, remove, and dispose of marine debris, including through private-public partnerships;
(iii) establishing effective and coordinated education and outreach activities; and
(iv) ensuring Federal cooperation with, and assistance to, the coastal States (as that term is defined in section 304 of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1453)), Indian tribes, and local governments in the identification, determination of sources, prevention, reduction, management, mitigation, and control of marine debris and its adverse impacts.
(2) Annual progress reports.--Not later than 3 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, and biennially thereafter, the Interagency Committee, through the chairperson, shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives a report that evaluates United States and international progress in meeting the purpose of this Act. The report shall include--
(A) the status of implementation of any recommendations and strategies of the Interagency Committee and analysis of their effectiveness;
(B) a summary of the marine debris inventory to be maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration;
(C) a review of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program authorized by section 3, including projects funded and accomplishments relating to reduction and prevention of marine debris;
(D) a review of Coast Guard programs and accomplishments relating to marine debris removal, including enforcement and compliance with MARPOL requirements; and
(E) estimated Federal and non-Federal funding provided for marine debris and recommendations for priority funding needs.
SEC. 6. FEDERAL INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE.
The Administrator, in coordination with the Interagency Committee, shall--
(1) maintain a Federal information clearinghouse on marine debris that will be available to researchers and other interested persons to improve marine debris source identification, data sharing, and monitoring efforts through collaborative research and open sharing of data; and
(2) take the necessary steps to ensure the confidentiality of such information (especially proprietary information), for any information required by the Administrator to be submitted by the fishing industry under this section.
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(2) Interagency committee.--The term ``Interagency Committee'' means the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee established under section 2203 of the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act of 1987 (33 U.S.C. 1914).
(3) United states exclusive economic zone.--The term
``United States exclusive economic zone'' means the zone established by Presidential Proclamation Numbered 5030, dated March 10, 1983, including the ocean waters of the areas referred to as ``eastern special areas'' in article 3(1) of the Agreement between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Maritime Boundary, signed June 1, 1990.
(4) MARPOL; annex v; convention.--The terms ``MARPOL'',
``Annex V'', and ``Convention'' have the meaning given those terms under section 2(a) of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. 1901(a)).
(5) Navigable waters.--The term ``navigable waters'' means waters of the United States, including the territorial sea.
(6) Territorial sea.--The term ``territorial sea'' means the waters of the United States referred to in Presidential Proclamation No. 5928, dated December 27, 1988.
(7) Program.--The term ``Program'' means the Marine Debris Prevention and Removal Program established under section 3.
(8) State.--The term ``State'' means--
(A) any State of the United States that is impacted by marine debris within its seaward or Great Lakes boundaries;
(B) the District of Columbia;
(C) American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands; and
(D) any other territory or possession of the United States, or separate sovereign in free association with the United States, that is impacted by marine debris within its seaward boundaries.
SEC. 8. RELATIONSHIP TO OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LANDS ACT.
Nothing in this Act supersedes, or limits the authority of the Secretary of the Interior under, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.).
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated for each fiscal year 2006 through 2010--
(1) to the Administrator for carrying out sections 3 and 6,
$10,000,000, of which no more than 10 percent may be for administrative costs; and
(2) to the Secretary of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating, for the use of the Commandant of the Coast Guard in carrying out section 4, $2,000,000, of which no more than 10 percent may be used for administrative costs.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Maryland.
General Leave
Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 362.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Maryland?
There was no objection.
Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, S. 362, the Marine Debris Research, Prevention and Reduction Act, was introduced by Senator Inouye of Hawaii and was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate in July last year.
The bill would enhance the Federal Government's capabilities to remove and prevent the creation of marine debris that is derived from ocean-based activities. Marine debris degrades very slowly, is highly buoyant and can be carried thousands of miles by ocean currents. Marine debris poses significant entanglement threats to many marine organisms, including fish, crabs, birds and marine mammals and can have serious consequences on human health.
The bill would require the establishment of a Marine Debris Prevention and Removal Program with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to coordinate that agency's existing activities and requirements to reduce the impact of marine debris on the environment and navigation safety.
The bill also would require the Coast Guard to implement measures to improve compliance and enforcement of laws and international agreements regarding the discard of plastics and garbage from vessels.
The bill also amends current law to reactivate the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee, rather than establish a new interagency forum, as was proposed in the Senate-passed bill.
The bill before us today is the result of extensive consultation between the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Committee on Resources. The bill has strong bipartisan support, and I expect the Senate to act quickly to send this legislation to the President.
S. 362 will significantly improve the Federal Government's programs to prevent and remove marine debris without creating unnecessary, duplicative programs.
I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the great defender of our Nation's coastlines.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from California for those very nice remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 362, legislation that will address the serious and overlooked problem of marine debris along our Nation's shores and beaches.
Marine debris remains a huge issue in my home State of New Jersey. It was not too long ago that the New York Bight, a 19,000-square-mile area off the coast of New Jersey and New York, was known infamously as the
``ocean dumping capital of the world.''
It has taken years of work to clean up our oceans and our beaches, and S. 362 will help ensure that we never go back to where we were.
I applaud my colleagues on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, especially the chairman, Don Young, and the ranking member, Jim Oberstar, and Resources Committee chairman, Richard Pombo, and the ranking member, Nick Rahall, for their support in clearing this important legislation for the floor. And I also thank my colleague from San Diego and my colleague, the chairman of our Subcommittee on Resources from Maryland, for helping clear this important legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I introduced the House companion version of this bill, H.R. 3692, not only because marine debris is bad for human health and the environment but also because it can be incredibly harmful to our tourism economy in New Jersey and across the country.
By building on the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, S. 362 will provide additional coordination to prevent and reduce marine debris through the establishment of an interagency coordinating committee. The bill will also strengthen and enhance specific program activities carried out by NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard.
This legislation will provide additional grant resources to reduce the volume of marine debris, track the origination and subsequent dispersal of this trash, and stimulate new education strategies to build public awareness of the problem. Marine debris is an issue that we ignore at our own peril, and I urge adoption of this legislation to finally establish an effective and coordinated Federal response to the problem.
Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I think everything has been said, and I urge support for the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 362, the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act.
America's beaches are littered with garbage washed ashore. At a time when more and more people are enjoying being outdoors, we're finding more debris on our coasts that can pose a serious threat to beachgoers, boaters, and divers.
Congress has already passed many laws that attempt to address this issue including the Clean Water Act, the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, the Ocean Dumping Act, the Driftnet Impact Monitoring, Assessment, and Control Act, and the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act. Yet the problem persists.
S. 362 attempts to address these issues by having the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) undertake various initiatives to reduce and prevent the use and adverse impact of debris on the marine environment including--
Assessing the impact of marine debris found in the navigable waters of the United States and our 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone.
Mapping and removing marine debris from our coastal waters.
Requiring measures to prevent the loss of fishing gear that can kill fish and marine mammals for years after they are lost from a ship.
Establishing outreach and education programs to help those that live on and along our waters to understand the impact of marine debris on our environment.
Under this legislation, the Coast Guard is required to enforce existing laws and treaties related to marine pollution and to develop new regulations on the disposal of plastics and fishing gear.
Plastic and other materials that are not biodegradable threaten the health of our oceans. Therefore, we must find a way to make sure they don't get into the water in the first place. As someone who represents a coastal district, I look forward to the day when I can walk down the beach without seeing it polluted by marine debris that has washed ashore.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Young, Chairman LoBiondo and Ranking Member Oberstar for the bipartisan approach that they took to develop this legislation. This legislation is another step forward in protecting the world's oceans from marine debris.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, especially the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) for his work on this issue.
To use another term, marine debris is trash and garbage which is massively discharged into our oceans. Some of it is degraded within a few days, others will last for hundreds if not thousands of years.
As Mr. Pallone mentioned, the Ocean Commission dedicates an entire chapter to the problems of marine debris. This legislation, with the help of the staff on the Transportation Committee and the Resources Committee, will go a long way to solve this problem.
Mr. Speaker, I urge an ``aye'' vote on the legislation.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 362, the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act. This bill has been developed in a very bipartisan manner.
The purpose of this legislation is to help fill in the gaps between existing maritime pollution laws such as the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. Our oceans are becoming the garbage pit for the world. Each year, tons of marine debris, such as plastics and garbage from vessels, is discarded into the oceans. It's killing the animals in our oceans and with it the oceans themselves.
The coastlines of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are littered with debris that washes up including massive fishing nets that are lost each year.
S. 362, introduced by Senator Inouye, will help address these problems. This legislation requires the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to map debris fields, to assess the impact of this debris on the living marine resources and navigational safety, and to develop strategies to prevent and remove marine debris from the navigable waters of the United States and our 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
S. 362 also requires the Commandant of the Coast Guard to take actions to reduce violations of and improve implementation of MARPOL Annex V and the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. Under the bill, the Coast Guard will also have to develop and implement a plan to improve ship-board waste management and to make sure that U.S. ports and terminals maintain and monitor the adequacy of receptacles for the disposal of plastics and other garbage that are brought into our ports each year on ships.
The oceans are our lifelines. We cannot let human activity kill them. S. 362 will help to prevent thousands of tons of debris from entering the ocean each year from vessels.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting S. 362, the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act.
Mr. POMBO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 362, the Marine Debris Research, Prevention and Reduction Act.
S. 362 is an important piece of environmental legislation. People in the U.S. and world-wide generate a lot of trash. While every effort is made to ensure the trash is sent to the appropriate place, improperly used trash receptacles, storm runoff, and outright littering send trash into rivers and oceans daily. All of this loose trash becomes marine debris. In return this marine debris has become a pervasive threat in our world's oceans adversely harming marine animals and their habitat.
S. 362 follows up on recommendations made by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy which called for action to reduce marine debris. Most importantly it would help identify, determine sources of, assess, reduce, and prevent marine debris and its adverse impacts on the marine environment and navigation safety. It would re-establish the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee to help ensure a coordinated government response across Federal agencies. In addition, it would also develop a Federal information clearing house to enable researchers to study the sources, scale and impact of marine debris more efficiently.
S. 362 is an important step in reducing, and hopefully some day eliminating, marine debris from our ocean environment. S. 362 is a good bill and should receive the support of Members and pass the House today.
Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) that the House suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill, S. 362, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor thereof) the rules were suspended and the Senate bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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