[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4458 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4458

     To establish a grant program within the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration to award grants to eligible entities for the 
 purpose of carrying out projects on the conservation, restoration, or 
                 management of kelp forest ecosystems.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 16, 2021

     Mr. Huffman (for himself, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Lieu, Ms. Lee of 
 California, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Panetta, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. DeFazio, Ms. 
  Bonamici, and Ms. Norton) introduced the following bill; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To establish a grant program within the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration to award grants to eligible entities for the 
 purpose of carrying out projects on the conservation, restoration, or 
                 management of kelp forest ecosystems.

    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 ``Keeping Ecostystems Living and 
Productive Act'' or the ``KELP Act''.

SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR CONSERVING, RECOVERING, AND MAINTAINING KELP FOREST 
              ECOSYSTEMS.

    (a) Establishment.--The Administrator of the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration shall establish a grant program (in this 
section referred to as the ``Program'') under which the Administrator 
shall award grants to eligible entities described in subsection (b) to 
carry out projects relating to the conservation, restoration, or 
management of kelp forest ecosystems.
    (b) Eligible Entity.--To be eligible for a grant under this 
section, an entity shall--
            (1) be a member of the fishing industry, an academic 
        community, a relevant nonprofit organization, a federally 
        recognized Indian Tribe, or a relevant State agency;
            (2) propose or be conducting a project relating to the 
        conservation, restoration, or management of kelp forest 
        ecosystems developed through consultation with any of the other 
        entities described in paragraph (1); and
            (3) submit to the Administrator an application describing 
        such project at such time, in such manner, and containing such 
        information as the Administrator may require, including 
        information about what criteria will be used to monitor and 
        evaluate the effectiveness of the project.
    (c) Eligible Projects.--The Administrator shall award grants to 
eligible entities for projects that--
            (1) address greatest relative regional declines in kelp 
        forest ecosystems;
            (2) focus on--
                    (A) long term ecosystem resilience;
                    (B) long term socioeconomic resilience;
                    (C) kelp forest seeding and connectivity;
                    (D) urchin removal and predator control efforts;
                    (E) monitoring and assessment of kelp forest 
                ecosystems; or
                    (F) other efforts to restore kelp forest ecosystems 
                and prevent large scale losses of kelp forests; or
            (3) are identified by Federal or State restoration and 
        management plans as focal areas for recovery of kelp forests 
        and associated species.
    (d) Matching Requirement.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), the 
        total amount of Federal funding received under the Program by 
        an eligible entity may not exceed 85 percent of the total cost 
        of the project for which a grant is awarded. For the purposes 
        of this subparagraph, the non-Federal share of project costs 
        may be provided by in-kind contributions and other noncash 
        support.
            (2) Waiver.--The Administrator may waive all or part of the 
        requirement in paragraph (1) if the Administrator determines 
        that no reasonable means are available through which an 
        eligible entity applying for a grant under this section can 
        meet such requirement and the probable benefit of such project 
        outweighs the public interest in such requirement.
    (e) Definitions.--In this section--
            (1) the term ``academic community'' means faculty, 
        researchers, professors, and representatives of State-
        accredited colleges and universities;
            (2) the term ``fishing industry'' means processors, 
        commercial fishermen, and recreational fishermen;
            (3) the term ``kelp forest ecosystem'' means a naturally 
        occurring, biotic system dominated by canopy forming benthic 
        macroalgae and associated taxa; and
            (4) the term ``nonprofit organization'' means an 
        organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal 
        Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) 
        of such Code.
    (f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to the Administrator $50,000,000 for each of the fiscal 
years 2022 through 2026 to carry out this section.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that the purposes of this Act and the 
grants authorized by section 2 are to support wild kelp forest 
ecosystems and restoration of wild kelp to enable long term recovery of 
naturally functioning kelp forest ecosystems that do not involve 
commercial or mechanized harvesting.
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