[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4335 Introduced in House (IH)]




105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4335

   To transfer to the Secretary of the Interior the functions of the 
 Secretary of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service under 
                  the Endangered Species Act of 1973.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 24, 1998

     Mr. Young of Alaska (for himself, Mr. Herger, Mr. Pombo, Mr. 
    Nethercutt, Mrs. Chenoweth, Mr. Smith of Oregon, and Mr. Crapo) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To transfer to the Secretary of the Interior the functions of the 
 Secretary of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service under 
                  the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

    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 ``Endangered Species Consolidation 
Act''.

SEC. 2. TRANSFER OF FUNCTIONS UNDER ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF 1973 FROM 
              SECRETARY OF COMMERCE TO SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

    (a) Transfer.--All functions that were performed by the Secretary 
of Commerce under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
seq.) immediately before the enactment of this Act, including functions 
performed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, are transferred to 
the Secretary of the Interior.
    (b) Conforming Amendments.--The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is 
amended--
            (1) in section 3(15) (16 U.S.C. 1532(15)), by striking ``or 
        the Secretary'' and all that follows through ``1970;'' and 
        inserting a comma;
            (2) in section 4(a) (16 U.S.C. 1533(a)), by striking 
        paragraph (2) and redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (2);
            (3) in section 4(c) (16 U.S.C. 1533(c)), by striking ``or 
        the Secretary of Commerce'' each place it appears;
            (4) in section 8A(e)(1) (16 U.S.C. 1537a(e)(1)), by 
        striking `` the Secretary of Commerce,''; and
            (5) in section 15(a) (16 U.S.C. 1542(a)), by adding `` 
        and'' after the semicolon in paragraph (1), by striking 
        paragraph (2), and by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph 
        (2);
    (c) References.--Any reference in any other Federal law, Executive 
order, rule, regulation, or delegation of authority, or any document of 
or pertaining to the Department of Commerce or any agency of the 
Department of Commerce --
            (1) to the Secretary of Commerce or the head of such 
        agency, with respect to a function that is transferred by this 
        section, is deemed to refer to the Secretary of the Interior; 
        or
            (2) to the Department of Commerce or such agency, with 
        respect to such a function, is deemed to refer to the 
        Department of the Interior.
    (d) Exercise of Authorities.--The Secretary of the Interior may, 
for purposes of performing any function transferred by this section, 
exercise all authorities under any other provision of law that were 
available to the Secretary of Commerce for the performance of the 
function immediately before the effective date of the transfer of the 
function under this section.
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