1.This Act may be cited as the
Great Lakes Coordination and Oversight
Act of 2006
.
2.In this title:
(1)The term Collaboration means
the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration established by section 4(a).
(2)The term
Executive Committee means the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration
Executive Committee established by section 4(b).
(3)The term
Executive Order means Executive Order 13340 (33 U.S.C. 1268 note;
relating to establishment of Great Lakes Interagency Task Force and promotion
of regional collaboration of national significance for Great Lakes).
(4)The term Great
Lake means—
(A)Lake Erie;
(B)Lake Huron (including Lake Saint
Clair);
(C)Lake Michigan;
(D)Lake Ontario;
(E)Lake Superior; and
(F)the connecting channels of those Lakes,
including—
(i)the Saint Marys River;
(ii)the Saint Clair River;
(iii)the Detroit River;
(iv)the Niagara River; and
(v)the Saint Lawrence River to the Canadian
border.
(5)The term Great
Lakes Tribe means any Indian tribe, band, village, nation, or other
organized group or community in the watershed basin of a Great Lake that is
recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as eligible for the special programs
and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status
as Indians.
(6)The term Task
Force means the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force established by
section 3.
3.Great lakes
interagency task force
(a)The Great Lakes
Interagency Task Force, as established by the Executive Order 13340 for
administrative purposes, is established as a task force within the
Environmental Protection Agency.
(b)In addition to the duties described in the
Executive Order, the Task Force shall—
(1)ensure that implementation of programs and
projects under the authority of Task Force members is coordinated, effective,
and cost-efficient;
(2)submit to Congress a biennial report that
describes the projects and activities carried out by the Collaboration during
the 2-year period covered by the report, including a description of—
(A)any actions that Federal agencies can take
to address the biennial restoration goals;
(B)Federal expenditures to meet the
restoration goals and the amount of non-Federal funding leveraged by those
Federal expenditures; and
(C)the indicators and monitoring used to
determine whether the goals will be met;
(3)establish a regular means of communication
with the Executive Committee to exchange information and recommendations for
action; and
(4)ensure that the activities of the Task
Force are coordinated with the activities of the Lake Champlain Basin
Program.
4.Great Lakes Regional
Collaboration
(a)There is established a Great Lakes Regional
Collaboration.
(1)
(A)The Collaboration shall be composed
of—
(i)the members of the Executive Committee;
and
(ii)each other individual or entity that
notifies the Executive Committee, in writing, of the desire and intent of the
individual or entity to participate in the Collaboration.
(B)Balanced
representation of stakeholder groupsThe Collaboration shall have a balanced
representation of interested stakeholder groups, including—
(i)members of academia;
(ii)municipalities;
(iii)nongovernmental organizations;
(iv)property owners;
(v)recreational boaters;
(vi)recreational fisheries;
(vii)representatives of environmental interests;
and
(viii)representatives of industry.
(2)Duties of the
collaborationNot later than
3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 3 years thereafter,
the Collaboration shall draft a strategy using the best available
science—
(A)to describe the health of the Great Lakes;
and
(B)to identify Great Lakes restoration
goals.
(b)
(1)The Executive Committee shall be composed
of—
(A)the Chairperson of the Task Force;
(B)a representative of the Council of Great
Lakes Governors, as agreed upon by the Governors;
(C)a representative of the Great Lakes and
Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative, as agreed upon by the majority of mayors of
those cities; and
(D)a designated representative of the Great
Lakes Tribes, as agreed upon by those Tribes.
(c)The Executive Committee shall—
(1)establish a process for communicating with
the members of the Collaboration;
(2)work with the members of the Collaboration
to develop a strategy for the restoration of the Great Lakes as required in
subsection (a)(2);
(3)after completing the strategy, develop a
list of short-term and long-term goals and identify the level of government
that is best able to achieve each goal;
(4)hold semiannual public meetings to
discuss—
(A)Great Lakes restoration goals; and
(B)the progress in carrying out those
goals;
(5)receive input and consider recommendations
relating to the proposed goals described in paragraph (3) from interested
stakeholder groups described in subsection (a)(1)(B);
(6)submit to the Congress and the Task Force a
biennial report that includes—
(A)an analysis of progress in—
(i)carrying out the restoration of the Great
Lakes; and
(ii)meeting the goals and the recommendations
of the strategy developed by the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration and under
this Act; and
(B)contributions made by—
(i)Great Lakes States;
(ii)municipal partners; and
(iii)Great Lakes Tribes; and
(7)ensure that—
(A)the Collaboration has a balanced
representation of interested stakeholder groups described in subsection
(a)(1)(B); and
(B)the strategy developed by the Collaboration
is coordinated with the activities of the Lake Champlain Basin Program.
(d)The members of the Executive Committee may
designate representatives to work as 1 or more subcommittees to provide staff
support and otherwise assist in carrying out responsibilities of the Executive
Committee relating to the Collaboration.
5.Efficiency evaluations
of committees and officesThe
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall evaluate each
committee and office that oversees a Great Lakes program—
(1)to identify overlapping duties; and
(2)to develop recommendations to improve the
efficiency of those committees and offices.