[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 14, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Page 13607]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-04937]


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GULF COAST ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION COUNCIL


Notice of Proposed Subaward Under a Council-Selected Restoration 
Component Award

AGENCY: Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (Council) 
publishes notice of a proposed subaward from the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science 
(NOAA) to the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA), a nonprofit organization, 
for the purpose of supporting the Council Monitoring and Assessment 
Program (CMAP). The Council and NOAA have entered an interagency 
agreement for NOAA to carry out CMAP, as approved in the Council's 
Initial Funded Priorities List.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please send questions by email to 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 1321(t)(2)(E)(ii)(III) of the 
RESTORE Act (33 U.S.C. 1321(t) and note) and Treasury's implementing 
regulation at 31 CFR 34.401(b) require that, for purposes of awards 
made under the Council-Selected Restoration Component, a State or 
Federal award recipient may make a grant or subaward to or enter into a 
cooperative agreement with a nongovernmental entity that equals or 
exceeds 10 percent of the total amount of the award provided to the 
State or Federal award recipient only if certain notice requirements 
are met. Specifically, at least 30 days before the State or Federal 
award recipient enters into such an agreement, the Council must publish 
in the Federal Register and deliver to specified Congressional 
Committees the name of the recipient and subrecipient; a brief 
description of the activity, including its purpose; and the amount of 
the award. This notice accomplishes the Federal Register publication 
requirement.

Description of Proposed Action

    As specified in the Initial Funded Priorities List, which is 
available on the Council's Web site at https://www.restorethegulf.gov/council-selected-restoration-component/funded-priorities-list, RESTORE 
Act funds will support the Council Monitoring and Assessment Program 
(CMAP). Administered jointly by NOAA and the Department of the 
Interior's United States Geological Survey (USGS), CMAP will build the 
foundational components for Gulf region-wide monitoring in order to 
measure impacts of investments in restoration. Through collaboration 
with the Gulf States, federal and local partners, academia, non-
governmental/non-profit organizations, and industry, the program will 
use a Monitoring Community of Practice coordinated by the Gulf of 
Mexico Alliance to leverage existing resources, capacities, and 
expertise and build on existing monitoring programs. These existing 
programs will be coordinated into a network, to provide efficiency in 
monitoring and collaborative cross-program review of performance with 
other Gulf ecosystem recovery efforts.
    The program will: (1) Create an inventory of the existing 
monitoring programs, data, protocols and standards; (2) determine the 
minimum monitoring elements needed to evaluate the performance of 
restoration projects; (3) evaluate monitoring program suitability; (4) 
combine data from the suitable existing programs into searchable 
databases for Council use; (5) examine the inventory to determine what 
data are missing (i.e. identify information gaps) that would be 
required for the RESTORE Council; (6) document existing baseline 
assessments of habitat and water quality conditions; and (7) provide 
recommendations to the Council to supplement and refine the existing 
monitoring programs to fill-in the information gaps where possible.

Will D. Spoon,
Program Analyst, Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.
[FR Doc. 2017-04937 Filed 3-13-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-58-P