[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 583 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 583

  To prohibit activities other than certain required environmental or 
   oceanographic studies under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 
 within the outer continental shelf off the State of Florida, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 26, 1993

  Mr. Goss (for himself, Ms. Thurman, Mr. Stearns, Mr. McCollum, Mr. 
  Bilirakis, Mr. Bacchus of Florida, Ms. Meek, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. 
 Deutsch, Ms. Brown of Florida, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Johnston of Florida) 
   introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to the 
   Committees on Natural Resources and Merchant Marine and Fisheries

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit activities other than certain required environmental or 
   oceanographic studies under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 
 within the outer continental shelf off the State of Florida, 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. PROHIBITION OF ACTIVITIES OTHER THAN ENVIRONMENTAL OR 
              OCEANOGRAPHIC STUDIES.

    (a) Prohibition.--The Secretary of the Interior (in this Act 
referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall not--
            (1) conduct a lease sale; or
            (2) issue any new leases,
in any area of the outer continental shelf off the State of Florida, 
between the seaward lateral boundary between Florida and Alabama and 
the seaward lateral boundary between Florida and Georgia.
    (b) Effective Period.--(1) The prohibition in subsection (a) shall 
remain in effect until the later of--
            (A) January 1, 2002; or
            (B) 180 days after the date on which the Secretary submits 
        to the Congress and to the Governor of the State of Florida a 
        report documenting the completion of the studies described in 
        subsection (c).
    (2) Each study that is documented in a report described in 
paragraph (1)(B) shall be reviewed, before submission of the report, by 
at least 3 scientists who--
            (A) shall be nominated by the Florida Academy of Sciences, 
        and approved by the Secretary and the Governor of the State of 
        Florida;
            (B) are not employees of the Department of the Interior; 
        and
            (C) are well qualified in the scientific disciplines 
        required for performance of the particular study or studies 
        that they review.
    (3) A report described in paragraph (1)(B) shall include each 
reviewer's written evaluations of each study's methodology and results.
    (c) Studies.--The Secretary shall undertake, directly or by 
contract, ecological and socioeconomic studies, physical oceanographic 
studies, endangered and threatened species and marine mammal surveys, 
and other environmental studies, including fieldwork and correlation of 
existing data and information, sufficient to obtain information about 
all significant conditions, processes, resources, and environments that 
may influence or be influenced by any of the activities described in 
subsection (a).

SEC. 2. CANCELLATION OF LEASES.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 10 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary shall commence the process of canceling, and 
thereafter shall proceed with dispatch to cancel, all leases in the 
area south of 26 degrees north latitude and east of 86 degrees west 
longitude that were issued under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 
on or before the date of enactment of this Act.
    (b) Annual Report.--The Secretary shall submit a report to Congress 
annually, on the anniversary of the date of enactment of this Act, on 
the status of the cancellation proceedings, until all of the leases 
described in subsection (a) have been canceled.

SEC. 3. COMPENSATION.

    (a) Amount of Compensation.--For any lease that is canceled 
pursuant to section 2, to the extent that it is determined that the 
lessee is entitled to compensation, the lessee shall receive 
compensation as provided in section 5(a)(2)(C) of the Outer Continental 
Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1334(a)(2)(C)).
    (b) Payment by the United States.--All of the compensation to which 
a lessee may be entitled under subsection (a) shall be paid out of the 
Treasury of the United States, and the State of Florida shall incur no 
cost or other liability of any kind as a consequence of cancellation of 
any lease under this Act.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated $1,000,000 for each of 
fiscal years 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001, for 
the purpose of conducting or contracting for performance of the studies 
required by section 1(c), to remain available until expended.

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