[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 106 (Tuesday, September 12, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H7480-H7482]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               MISSISSIPPI SOUND RESTORATION ACT OF 2000

  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4104) to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to 
authorize funding to carry out certain water quality and barrier island 
restoration projects for the Mississippi Sound, and for other purposes, 
as amended.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4104

       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 ``Mississippi Sound 
     Restoration Act of 2000''.

     SEC. 2. NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM.

       (a) Finding.--Congress finds that the Mississippi Sound is 
     an estuary of national significance.
       (b) Addition to National Estuary Program.--Section 
     320(a)(2)(B) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
     U.S.C. 1330(a)(2)(B)) is amended by inserting ``Mississippi 
     Sound, Mississippi;'' before ``and Peconic Bay, New York.''.

     SEC. 3. MISSISSIPPI SOUND.

       Title I of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
     U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:

     ``SEC. 121. MISSISSIPPI SOUND.

       ``(a) Establishment of Restoration Program.--The 
     Administrator shall establish within the Environmental 
     Protection Agency the Mississippi Sound Restoration Program.
       ``(b) Purpose.--The purpose of the program shall be to 
     restore the ecological health of the Sound, including barrier 
     islands, coastal wetlands, keys, and reefs, by developing and 
     funding restoration projects and related scientific and 
     public education projects and by coordinating efforts among 
     Federal, State, and local governmental agencies and 
     nonregulatory organizations.
       ``(c) Duties.--In carrying out the program, the 
     Administrator shall--
       ``(1) provide administrative and technical assistance to a 
     management conference convened for the Sound under section 
     320;
       ``(2) assist and support the activities of the management 
     conference, including the implementation of recommendations 
     of the management conference;
       ``(3) support environmental monitoring of the Sound and 
     research to provide necessary technical and scientific 
     information;
       ``(4) develop a comprehensive research plan to address the 
     technical needs of the program;
       ``(5) coordinate the grant, research, and planning programs 
     authorized under this section; and
       ``(6) collect and make available to the public 
     publications, and other forms of information the management 
     conference determines to be appropriate, relating to the 
     environmental quality of the Sound.
       ``(d) Grants.--The Administrator may make grants--
       ``(1) for restoration projects and studies recommended by a 
     management conference convened for the Sound under section 
     320; and

[[Page H7481]]

       ``(2) for public education projects recommended by the 
     management conference.
       ``(e) Definitions.--In this section, the following 
     definitions apply:
       ``(1) Sound.--The term `Sound' means the Mississippi Sound 
     located on the Gulf Coast of the State of Mississippi.
       ``(2) Program.--The term `program' means the Mississippi 
     Sound Restoration Program established under subsection (a).
       ``(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized 
     to be appropriated $10,000,000 to carry out this section. 
     Such sums shall remain available until expended.''.

     SEC. 4. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.

       It is the sense of the Congress that all recipients of 
     grants under this Act (including amendments made by this Act) 
     shall abide by the Buy American Act. The Administrator of the 
     Environmental Protection Agency shall give notice of the Buy 
     American Act requirements to grant applicants under this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) and the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette).
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the purpose of H.R. 4104, introduced by the gentleman 
from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) is to authorize financial and technical 
assistance for water quality restoration activities in the Mississippi 
Sound.
  H.R. 4104 provides a framework for voluntary and cooperative efforts 
to restore the Mississippi Sound by identifying the Mississippi Sound 
as an estuary of national significance recommended for inclusion in the 
National Estuary Program, and also creating a Mississippi Sound program 
within EPA to coordinate and provide assistance to State and local 
efforts, to reduce pollution and restore the ecological health of the 
Sound.
  I want to commend the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) for 
moving this legislation to the floor so expeditiously, and I support 
the legislation, and I urge an aye vote.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) for his 
remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the best-kept secrets in America is no longer a 
well-kept secret. The Mississippi coast, with the advent of legalized 
gaming, has gone from a relatively quiet back-water community to one of 
the most popular destination resorts in the United States of America. 
The Gulfport airport that traditionally handled over 200,000 people 
will board over a million people this year.
  All that being said, there are a heck of a lot more people using the 
Mississippi Sound than ever before, a heck of a lot more people living 
in the vicinity of it.
  In all of the estuarine area in the Mississippi gulf coast, which is 
so similar to the Chesapeake Bay in characteristics with the bays and 
coastal marshes, is facing the same sort of stress that the Chesapeake 
Bay and other estuarine areas around the country have faced.
  Although we still have record oyster harvest, we are having a 
phenomenal shrimp season this year, the bottom line is that, much as 
the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) mentioned, our losses of 
coastal marshes are not taking place in hundreds of acres or thousands 
of acres, but truly an acre at a time, just as he mentioned it.
  Although 1,200 acres were permitted to be filled by the Corps of 
Engineers last year, this is not a police state. I think it is fair to 
say, if 1,200 acres were permitted, probably 5,000 acres were truly 
lost.
  What we are trying to do is restore some of the mistakes that man has 
made along the Mississippi Gulf Coast using the resources available.
  We would like to be a pilot project in the United States of America 
for the beneficial use of dredge material when the Federal Government 
dredges and maintains its channels. Rather than taking that offshore 
and dumping it, we want to use that material to rebuild and restore our 
coastal marshes, to rebuild our barrier islands. We want to take the 
riprap that is created from Federal projects and start rebuilding some 
of the reefs that were unnecessarily destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s 
to provide aggregate material for building roads.
  We have a lot of opportunities. What we need more than anything else 
is a game plan entailing the entire three coastal counties and our 
partners in Louisiana, since we were part of the Lake Pontchartrain 
Basin as well, to work together to take this jewel that God created and 
make it as pristine as possible.
  I know the hour is late. I do not think it needs any further 
explanation. I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) 
for his help. I want to thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. 
Oberstar), the ranking member of the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure, for his great assistance in getting this on the 
calendar tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, we have no requests for time. I also 
urge passage of the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), ranking member, 
one of the gentlemen who was so helpful in bringing this to the floor 
tonight.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this 
time. I want to, again, express my appreciation to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Chairman Shuster) for bringing this legislation to the 
committee and to the floor so expeditiously, and to compliment the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) for his dogged pursuit of this 
legislation. He has been a relentless advocate for action on the 
Mississippi Sound. The restoration act that he brings to the floor 
tonight is one that he has championed for many years and advocated 
vigorously within the committee and is one that will stand as a crown 
jewel in his legislative achievement.
  Much progress has been made under the Clean Water Act since 1972, but 
many bodies of water still require additional attention and resources 
to achieve the clean water goals that we set forth 28 years ago.
  The unique ecosystem in southern Mississippi that covers 2,400 square 
miles with a drainage basin, as the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. 
Taylor) said, that extends from Mississippi into Louisiana, is one of 
the great jewels of our natural resources in the United States. But 
much of the problem that this legislation will address bears a made-in-
other-States label.
  The runoff from 10 States all along the Mississippi drainage basin 
all the way to Canada wind up in this ecosystem. All the rest of us 
have a responsibility to help Mississippi and Louisiana and the 
Mississippi Sound area protect this diverse environment, this essential 
habitat for an extraordinary variety of species of fish, birds, 
mammals, and plants.

                              {time}  2310

  The legislation the gentleman has so thoughtfully crafted will move 
us along in that direction, and I greatly appreciate his leadership, 
that of our committee, the subcommittee chairman, the gentleman from 
New York (Mr. Boehlert); the gentleman tonight who presents the bill, 
the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette), who has been such a strong 
voice for protection of the Great Lakes and the nonindigenous invasive 
species legislation that he championed and I have cosponsored with him.
  His understanding there brings to bear a new dimension, an important 
dimension on this legislation being considered tonight. I urge its 
enactment.
  Mr. BOEHLERT. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4104, the Mississippi Sound 
Restoration Act of 2000, amends the Clean Water Act to require EPA to 
establish a Mississippi Sound Restoration Program, and to carry out 
water quality and environmental restoration projects for the Sound.
  I commend Representative Gene Taylor for introducing H.R. 4104, a 
bill that will help restore and protect one more of our national 
treasures.
  I also thank the chairman and ranking member of the Transportation 
and Infrastructure Committee for helping to bring this bill to the 
House floor for action.
  I support passage of H.R. 4104, and urge my colleagues to do the 
same.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of 
my time.

[[Page H7482]]

  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4104, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  The title of the bill was amended so as to read:

       ``A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 
     to authorize funding to carry out certain water quality and 
     environmental restoration projects for the Mississippi Sound, 
     Mississippi, and for other purposes.''.

  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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