[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 29, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S6001]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





  AMENDING THE NUTRIA ERADICATION AND CONTROL ACT OF 2003 TO INCLUDE 
                       CALIFORNIA IN THE PROGRAM

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Committee on Environment and Public Works be discharged from further 
consideration of S. 4403 and the Senate proceed to its immediate 
consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 4403) to amend the Nutria Eradication and 
     Control Act of 2003 to include California in the program, and 
     for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the committee was discharged, and the 
Senate proceeded to consider the bill
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, though my bill, S. 4403, a bill to amend 
the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 to include California in 
the program, amends P.L. 108-16, which calls specifically for the 
Secretary to ``require that the program consist of management, 
research, and public education activities carried out in accordance 
with the document published by the United States Fish and Wildlife 
Service entitled `Eradication Strategies for Nutria in the Chesapeake 
and Delaware Bay Watersheds' dated March 2002'' and to ``give 
consideration to the 2002 report from the Louisiana Department of 
Wildlife and Fisheries titled 'Nutria in Louisiana,' '' the Secretary 
and State participants should also consider data that has been 
established since 2002, in developing strategies for the eradication of 
Nutria.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
considered read a third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and was read 
the third time.
  Mr. PORTMAN. I know of no further debate on this bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill having been read the third time, the 
question is, Shall the bill pass?
  The bill (S. 4403) was passed, as follows

                                S. 4403

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. NUTRIA ERADICATION.

       The Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 (Public Law 
     108-16) is amended--
       (1) in section 2--
       (A) in subsection (a)--
       (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ``Wetlands and tidal 
     marshes of the Chesapeake Bay and in Louisiana'' and 
     inserting ``Wetlands, tidal marshes, and agricultural 
     lands'';
       (ii) in paragraph (2), by striking ``in Maryland and 
     Louisiana''; and
       (iii) by amending paragraph (3) to read as follows:
       ``(3) Traditional harvest methods to control or eradicate 
     nutria have failed. Consequently, marsh loss, loss of public 
     and private wetlands, and loss of agricultural lands are 
     accelerating.''; and
       (B) in subsection (b), by striking ``the State of Maryland 
     and the State of Louisiana'' and inserting ``any State that 
     has demonstrated the need''; and
       (2) in section 3--
       (A) by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
       ``(a) Grant Authority.--The Secretary of the Interior 
     (referred to in this Act as the `Secretary'), may provide 
     financial assistance to a State, in an amount that is in 
     proportion to the total impacted area of such State affected 
     by nutria, that has demonstrated to the Secretary sufficient 
     need for a program to implement measures to eradicate or 
     control nutria and restore marshland, public and private 
     wetlands, and agricultural lands damaged by nutria.'';
       (B) by striking subsection (b);
       (C) in subsection (d)--
       (i) in paragraph (1), by striking ``the program may'' and 
     inserting ``a State program referred to in subsection (a) 
     may''; and
       (ii) in paragraph (2), by striking ``the program may'' and 
     inserting ``a State program referred to in subsection (a) 
     may'';
       (D) in subsection (e), by inserting ``to a State'' after 
     ``provided'';
       (E) in subsection (f), by striking ``$4,000,000'' and all 
     that follows and inserting ``$12,000,000 for each of fiscal 
     years 2021 through 2025.''; and
       (F) by redesignating subsections (c) through (f) as 
     subsections (b) through (e).
Passed the Senate September 30 (legislative day, September 29), 2020.

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion 
to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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