[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 573 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 573

To make competitive awards to national estuary programs, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 27, 2015

   Mr. Posey (for himself and Mr. Murphy of Florida) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation 
                           and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To make competitive awards to national estuary programs, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Estuary Urgent Needs Priority 
Program Act''.

SEC. 2. COMPETITIVE AWARDS.

    Section 320(g) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
U.S.C. 1330(g)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4) Competitive awards.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Of the amount made available 
                under subsection (i), the Administrator shall make 
                competitive awards under this paragraph.
                    ``(B) Application for awards.--The Administrator 
                shall solicit applications for awards under this 
                paragraph from State, interstate, and regional water 
                pollution control agencies and entities, State coastal 
                zone management agencies, interstate agencies, other 
                public or nonprofit private agencies, institutions, 
                organizations, and individuals.
                    ``(C) Selection of recipients.--In selecting award 
                recipients under this paragraph, the Administrator 
                shall select recipients that are best able to address 
                urgent and challenging issues that threaten the 
                economic and ecological well-being of coastal areas. 
                Such issues shall include--
                            ``(i) extensive seagrass habitat losses 
                        resulting in significant impacts on fisheries 
                        and water quality;
                            ``(ii) recurring harmful algae blooms, 
                        unusual marine mammal mortalities;
                            ``(iii) invasive exotic species which can 
                        threaten wastewater systems and cause other 
                        damage; or
                            ``(iv) jellyfish proliferation limiting 
                        community access to water during peak tourism 
                        seasons.
                    ``(D) Priority.--The Administrator shall give 
                priority for the competitive awards described in 
                subparagraph (A) to national estuary programs that are 
                not part of the Geographic Programs as described in the 
                explanatory statement referred to in section 4 of the 
                Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (Public Law 113-
                76; 128 Stat. 7 and printed on page H978 of the 
                Congressional Record on January 15, 2014).
                    ``(E) Authorization of appropriations.--From the 
                amounts made available under subsection (i), 15 percent 
                shall be made available for the competitive awards 
                program under this subsection.''.
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