[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 899 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 899

         To provide for the eradication and control of nutria.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 5, 2011

 Mr. Cardin (for himself, Ms. Landrieu, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Merkley, and 
  Mrs. Hagan) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
         To provide for the eradication and control of nutria.

    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 ``Nutria Eradication and Control Act 
of 2011''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSE.

    Section 2 of the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 (Public 
Law 108-16; 117 Stat. 621) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``and in 
                Louisiana'' and inserting ``, the State of Louisiana, 
                and other coastal States'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``in Maryland and 
                Louisiana on Federal, State, and private land'' and 
                inserting ``on Federal, State, and private land in the 
                States of Maryland and Louisiana and in other coastal 
                States''; and
                    (C) by striking paragraphs (3) and (4) and 
                inserting the following:
            ``(3) This Act authorizes the Maryland Nutria Project, 
        which has successfully eradicated nutria from more than 130,000 
        acres of Chesapeake Bay wetlands in the State of Maryland and 
        facilitated the creation of voluntary, public-private 
        partnerships and more than 406 cooperative landowner 
        agreements.
            ``(4) This Act and the Coastal Wetlands Planning, 
        Protection, and Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 3951 et seq.) 
        authorize the Coastwide Nutria Control Program, which has 
        reduced nutria-impacted wetland acres in the State of Louisiana 
        from 80,000 acres to 23,141 acres.
            ``(5) The proven techniques developed under this Act that 
        are eradicating nutria in the State of Maryland and reducing 
        the acres of nutria-impacted wetlands in the State of Louisiana 
        should be applied to nutria eradication or control programs in 
        other nutria-infested coastal States''; and
            (2) by striking subsection (b) and inserting the following:
    ``(b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to authorize the 
Secretary of the Interior to provide financial assistance to the States 
of Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, and 
Washington to carry out activities--
            ``(1) to eradicate or control nutria; and
            ``(2) to restore nutria damaged wetlands.''.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    The Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-16; 
117 Stat. 621) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating sections 3 and 4 as sections 4 and 5, 
        respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after section 2 the following:

``SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    ``In this Act:
            ``(1) Coastal state.--The term `coastal State' means each 
        of the States of Delaware, Oregon, North Carolina, Virginia, 
        and Washington.
            ``(2) Program.--The term `program' means the nutria 
        eradication program established by section 4(a).
            ``(3) Public-private partnership.--The term `public-private 
        partnership' means a voluntary, cooperative project undertaken 
        by governmental entities or public officials and affected 
        communities, local citizens, nongovernmental organizations, or 
        other entities or persons in the private sector.
            ``(4) Secretary.--The term `Secretary' means the Secretary 
        of the Interior.''.

SEC. 4. NUTRIA ERADICATION PROGRAM.

    Section 4 of the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 (Public 
Law 108-16; 117 Stat. 621) (as redesignated by section 3) is amended--
            (1) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:
    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary may, subject to the availability 
of appropriations, provide financial assistance to the States of 
Maryland and Louisiana and the coastal States to implement measures--
            ``(1) to eradicate or control nutria; and
            ``(2) to restore wetlands damaged by nutria.'';
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``the State of'' 
                before ``Maryland'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``other States'' 
                and inserting ``the coastal States''; and
                    (C) in paragraph (3), by striking ``marshland'' and 
                inserting ``wetlands'';
            (3) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) by striking ``(c) Activities'' and inserting 
                ``(c) Activities in the State of Maryland''; and
                    (B) by inserting ``, and updated in March 2009'' 
                before the period at the end;
            (4) in subsection (e), by striking ``financial assistance 
        provided by the Secretary under this section'' and inserting 
        ``the amounts made available under subsection (f) to carry out 
        the program''; and
            (5) by striking subsection (f) and inserting the following:
    ``(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--Subject to subsection (e), 
for each of fiscal years 2012 through 2016, there are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretary to carry out the program such sums as are 
necessary.''.

SEC. 5. REPORT.

    Section 5 of the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 (Public 
Law 108-16; 117 Stat. 621) (as redesignated by section 3) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``2002 document entitled 
        `Eradication Strategies for Nutria in the Chesapeake and 
        Delaware Bay Watersheds'; and'' and inserting ``March 2009 
        update of the document entitled `Eradication Strategies for 
        Nutria in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay Watersheds' and 
        originally dated March 2002;'';
            (2) in paragraph (2)--
                    (A) by striking ``develop'' and inserting 
                ``continue''; and
                    (B) by striking the period at the end and inserting 
                ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding after paragraph (2) the following:
            ``(3) develop, in cooperation with the State of Delaware 
        Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the 
        State of Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, the 
        State of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State of 
        North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 
        and the State of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 
        long-term nutria control or eradication programs, as 
        appropriate, with the objective of--
                    ``(A) significantly reducing and restoring the 
                damage nutria cause to coastal wetlands in the coastal 
                States; and
                    ``(B) promoting voluntary, public-private 
                partnerships to eradicate or control nutria and 
                restoring nutria-damaged wetlands in the coastal 
                States.''.
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