AMENDING THE NUTRIA ERADICATION AND CONTROL ACT OF 2003 TO INCLUDE CALIFORNIA IN THE PROGRAM; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 169
(Senate - September 29, 2020)
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[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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