Sec. 1101. Findings; sense of Congress; purposes
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Congress makes the following findings: The ocean and coastal waters of the United States are foundational to the economy, security, global competitiveness, and well-being of the United States and continuously serve the people of the United States and other countries as an important source of food, energy, economic productivity, recreation, culture, beauty, and enjoyment. Over many years, the resource productivity and water quality of the ocean and coastal areas of the United States have been diminished by pollution, increasing population demands, economic development, and natural and man-made hazard events, both acute and chronic.
Ocean and coastal areas of the United States are managed by State and Federal resource agencies and regulated on an interstate and regional scale by various overlapping Federal authorities, thereby creating a significant need for interstate coordination to enhance regional priorities, including the ecological and economic health of those areas. Tribes and Indigenous communities have unique expertise and knowledge important for the stewardship of our ocean and coastal waters. It is the sense of Congress that— the United States should seek to support interstate coordination of shared regional priorities relating to the management, conservation, resilience, and restoration of ocean and coastal areas to maximize efficiencies through collaborative regional efforts by regional ocean partnerships, in consultation with Federal and State agencies, Tribal governments, and local authorities; such efforts would enhance existing and effective State coastal management efforts based on shared regional priorities; and regional ocean partnerships should either directly include representation from Tribal governments or have dedicated consultation with such governments.
The purposes of this subtitle are as follows: To complement and expand cooperative voluntary efforts intended to manage and restore ocean and coastal areas spanning across multiple State boundaries. To expand Federal support for monitoring, data management, and restoration activities in ocean and coastal areas. To commit the United States to a comprehensive cooperative program to achieve improved water quality in, and improvements in the productivity of living resources of, all coastal ecosystems.
To authorize regional ocean partnerships as intergovernmental coordinators for shared interstate and regional priorities relating to the collaborative management of the large marine ecosystems, thereby reducing duplication of efforts and maximizing opportunities to leverage support in the ocean and coastal regions. To empower States and Tribes to take a lead role in managing oceans and coasts. To incorporate Tribal interests in the management of our oceans and coasts and provide funding to support Tribal and Indigenous ocean and coastal resiliency activities in coordination with regional ocean partnerships.
To enable regional ocean partnerships, or designated fiscal management entities of such partnerships, to receive Federal funding to conduct the scientific research, conservation and restoration activities, and priority coordination on shared regional priorities necessary to achieve the purposes described in paragraphs
(1)through (4).