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108th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4876
To establish the Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 20, 2004
Mr. Simmons (for himself, Mr. Israel, Mr. Shays, Mrs. Johnson of
Connecticut, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, Mrs. Lowey, Mr.
King of New York, Mr. Ackerman, Mrs. McCarthy of New York, Mr. Bishop
of New York, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Engel, and Mr. Crowley) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources, and
in addition to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, for
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish the Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative.
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 ``Long Island Sound Stewardship Act of
2004''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
(1) Long Island Sound is a national treasure of great
cultural, environmental, and ecological importance;
(2) 8,000,000 people live within the Long Island Sound
watershed and 28,000,000 people (approximately 10 percent of
the population of the United States) live within 50 miles of
Long Island Sound;
(3) activities that depend on the environmental health of
Long Island Sound contribute more than $5,000,000,000 each year
to the regional economy;
(4) the portion of the shoreline of Long Island Sound that
is accessible to the general public (estimated at less than 20
percent of the total shoreline) is not adequate to serve the
needs of the people living in the area;
(5) existing shoreline facilities are in many cases
overburdened and underfunded;
(6) large parcels of open space already in public ownership
are strained by the effort to balance the demand for recreation
with the needs of sensitive natural resources;
(7) approximately \1/3\ of the tidal marshes of Long Island
Sound have been filled, and much of the remaining marshes have
been ditched, dyked, or impounded, reducing the ecological
value of the marshes; and
(8) much of the remaining exemplary natural landscape is
vulnerable to further development.
(b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to establish the Long
Island Sound Stewardship Initiative to identify, protect, and enhance
sites within the Long Island Sound ecosystem with significant
ecological, educational, open space, public access, or recreational
value through a bi-State network of sites best exemplifying these
values.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act, the following definitions apply:
(1) Adaptive management.--The term ``adaptive management''
means a scientific process--
(A) for--
(i) developing predictive models;
(ii) making management policy decisions
based upon the model outputs;
(iii) revising the management policies as
data become available with which to evaluate
the policies; and
(iv) acknowledging uncertainty, complexity,
and variance in the spatial and temporal
aspects of natural systems; and
(B) that requires that management be viewed as
experimental.
(2) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
(3) Committee.--The term ``Committee'' means the Long
Island Sound Stewardship Advisory Committee established by
section 5(a).
(4) Region.--The term ``Region'' means the Long Island
Sound Stewardship Initiative Region established by section
4(a).
(5) States.--The term ``States'' means the States of
Connecticut and New York.
(6) Stewardship site.--The term ``stewardship site'' means
a site that--
(A) qualifies for identification by the Committee
under section 8; and
(B) is an area of land or water or a combination of
land and water--
(i) that is in the Region; and
(ii) that is--
(I) Federal, State, local, or
tribal land or water;
(II) land or water owned by a
nonprofit organization; or
(III) privately owned land or
water.
(7) Systematic site selection.--The term ``systematic site
selection'' means a process of selecting stewardship sites
that--
(A) has explicit goals, methods, and criteria;
(B) produces feasible, repeatable, and defensible
results;
(C) provides for consideration of natural,
physical, and biological patterns;
(D) addresses reserve size, replication,
connectivity, species viability, location, and public
recreation values;
(E) uses geographic information systems technology
and algorithms to integrate selection criteria; and
(F) will result in achieving the goals of
stewardship site selection at the lowest cost.
(8) Threat.--The term ``threat'' means a threat that is
likely to destroy or seriously degrade a conservation target or
a recreation area.
SEC. 4. LONG ISLAND SOUND STEWARDSHIP INITIATIVE REGION.
(a) Establishment.--There is established in the States the Long
Island Sound Stewardship Initiative Region.
(b) Boundaries.--The Region shall encompass the immediate coastal
upland and underwater areas along Long Island Sound, including those
portions of the Sound with coastally influenced vegetation, as
described on the map entitled the ``Long Island Sound Stewardship
Region'' and dated April 21, 2004.
SEC. 5. LONG ISLAND SOUND STEWARDSHIP ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
(a) Establishment.--There is established a committee to be known as
the ``Long Island Sound Stewardship Advisory Committee''.
(b) Chairperson.--The Chairperson of the Committee shall be the
Director of the Long Island Sound Office of the Environmental
Protection Agency, or a designee of the Director.
(c) Membership.--
(1) Composition.--
(A) Appointment of members.--
(i) In general.--The Chairperson shall
appoint the members of the Committee in
accordance with this subsection and section
320(c) of the Federal Water Pollution Control
Act (33 U.S.C. 1330(c)).
(ii) Additional members.--In addition to
the requirements described in clause (i), the
Committee shall include--
(I) a representative from the
Regional Plan Association;
(II) a representative of the marine
trade organizations; and
(III) a representative of private
landowner interests.
(B) Representation.--In appointing members to the
Committee, the Chairperson shall consider--
(i) Federal, State, and local government
interests;
(ii) the interests of nongovernmental
organizations;
(iii) academic interests; and
(iv) private interests.
(2) Date of appointments.--Not later than 180 days after
the date of enactment of this Act, the appointment of all
members of the Committee shall be made.
(d) Term; Vacancies.--
(1) Term.--
(A) In general.--A member shall be appointed for a
term of 4 years.
(B) Multiple terms.--A person may be appointed as a
member of the Committee for more than 1 term.
(2) Vacancies.--A vacancy on the Committee shall--
(A) be filled not later than 90 days after the
vacancy occurs;
(B) not affect the powers of the Committee; and
(C) be filled in the same manner as the original
appointment was made.
(3) Staff.--
(A) In general.--The Chairperson of the Committee
may appoint and terminate personnel as necessary to
enable the Committee to perform the duties of the
Committee.
(B) Personnel as federal employees.--
(i) In general.--Any personnel of the
Committee who are employees of the Committee
shall be employees under section 2105 of title
5, United States Code, for purposes of chapters
63, 81, 83, 84, 85, 87, 89, and 90 of that
title.
(ii) Members of committee.--Clause (i) does
not apply to members of the Committee.
(e) Initial Meeting.--Not later than 30 days after the date on
which all members of the Committee have been appointed, the Committee
shall hold the initial meeting of the Committee.
(f) Meetings.--The Committee shall meet at the call of the
Chairperson, but no fewer than 4 times each year.
(g) Quorum.--A majority of the members of the Committee shall
constitute a quorum, but a lesser number of members may hold hearings.
SEC. 6. DUTIES OF THE COMMITTEE.
The Committee shall--
(1) consistent with the guidelines described in section 8--
(A) evaluate applications from government or
nonprofit organizations qualified to hold conservation
easements for funds to purchase land or development
rights for stewardship sites;
(B) evaluate applications to develop and implement
management plans to address threats;
(C) evaluate applications to act on opportunities
to protect and enhance stewardship sites; and
(D) recommend that the Administrator award grants
to qualified applicants;
(2) recommend guidelines, criteria, schedules, and due
dates for evaluating information to identify stewardship sites;
(3) publish a list of sites that further the purposes of
this Act, provided that owners of sites shall be--
(A) notified prior to the publication of the list;
and
(B) allowed to decline inclusion on the list;
(4) raise awareness of the values of and threats to these
sites; and
(5) leverage additional resources for improved stewardship
of the Region.
SEC. 7. POWERS OF THE COMMITTEE.
(a) Hearings.--The Committee may hold such hearings, meet and act
at such times and places, take such testimony, and receive such
evidence as the Committee considers advisable to carry out this Act.
(b) Information From Federal Agencies.--
(1) In general.--The Committee may secure directly from a
Federal agency such information as the Committee considers
necessary to carry out this Act.
(2) Provision of information.--
(A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph (C), on
request of the Chairperson of the Committee, the head
of a Federal agency shall provide the information
requested by the Chairperson to the Committee.
(B) Administration.--The furnishing of information
by a Federal agency to the Committee shall not be
considered a waiver of any exemption available to the
agency under section 552 of title 5, United States
Code.
(C) Information to be kept confidential.--
(i) In general.--For purposes of section
1905 of title 18, United States Code--
(I) the Committee shall be
considered an agency of the Federal
Government; and
(II) any individual employed by an
individual, entity, or organization
that is a party to a contract with the
Committee under this Act shall be
considered an employee of the
Committee.
(ii) Prohibition on disclosure.--
Information obtained by the Committee, other
than information that is available to the
public, shall not be disclosed to any person in
any manner except to an employee of the
Committee as described in clause (i), for the
purpose of receiving, reviewing, or processing
the information.
(c) Postal Services.--The Committee may use the United States mails
in the same manner and under the same conditions as other agencies of
the Federal Government.
(d) Donations.--The Committee may accept, use, and dispose of
donations of services or property that advance the goals of the Long
Island Sound Stewardship Initiative.
SEC. 8. STEWARDSHIP SITES.
(a) Application for Identification as a Stewardship Site.--
Subsequent to the identification of the initial stewardship sites under
subsection (c), owners of sites may submit applications to the
Committee in accordance with subsection (d) to have the sites
identified as stewardship sites.
(b) Identification.--The Committee shall review the applications
submitted by owners of potential stewardship sites to determine whether
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