II 97TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2792 To establish an Ocean and Coastal Development Impact Assistance Fund and to require the Secretary of Commerce to provide to States national ocean and coastal development and assistance block grants from moneys in the Fund, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 29 (legislative day, JULY 12), 1982 Mr. STEVENS (for himself, Mr. MURKOWSKI, Mr. HOLLINGS, Mr. PACKWOOD, Mr. INOUYE, Mr. GORTON, Mr. MITCHELL, Mr. HAYAKAWA, Mr. CRANSTON, Mr. THURMOND, Mr. CHILES, Mr. RUDMAN, Mr. Cohen, Mr. SarBANES, Mr. RIEGLE, and Mr. JOHNSTON) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To establish an Ocean and Coastal Development Impact Assistance Fund and to require the Secretary of Commerce to provide to States national ocean and coastal development and assistance block grants from moneys in the Fund, and for other purposes. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa 2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 4 SHORT TITLE SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "Ocean and 5 Coastal Development Impact Assistance Block Grant Act". 1 2 3 4 FINDINGS SEC. 2. The Congress finds and declares that (a) it is in the interest of the Nation, for both eco nomic and national security reasons, to expand and ac 5 celerate the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program where appropriate; (b) such expansion and acceleration of the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program will cause potential adverse onshore and nearshore impacts throughout the Nation's coastal areas and require States to assume additional responsibilities at a time when existing State revenues cannot respond adequate ly to current economic and natural resource management dislocations; (c) the revenue generated by the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program belong to the citizens of the United States, and, since these revenues are derived from the development of nonrenewable offshore mineral resources, should be invested in ocean and coastal natural resource management and scientific research efforts to enhance the development, use, con servation, and understanding of coastal and ocean renewable and other natural resources; (d) the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 presently provides for generous compensation to States affected by extraction and development of Federal land-based mineral resources, while no comparable Federal program exists to compensate coastal States for mineral extraction from the Outer Continental Shelf; (e) without Federal financial support the capability of coastal States to manage ocean and coastal resources, to participate in the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program, and to avoid or minimize potential adverse onshore and nearshore impacts associated with Outer Continental Shelf exploration and development will be seriously diminished; and (f) it is in the Nation's interest to maintain support for State management of ocean and coastal resources through such programs as fishery management programs, coastal zone management and planning, coastal energy impact programs, sea grant programs, long range scientific research, and other natural re source management efforts. DEFINITIONS 23 24 SEC. 3. For purposes of this Act (a) the term "bonus revenues" means all revenues collected by the Federal Government derived from bids by corporations, partnerships, individuals, or any business entity for the resource exploration and develop 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ment of tracts of land within the Outer Continental Shelf; (b) the term "coastal State" means any State of the United States in, or bordering on, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, Long Island Sound, or one or more of the Great Lakes; (c) the term "coastal territory" means any of the following, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Trust Territory of the (d) the term "coastline" means that term as defined in section 2(c) of the Submerged Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1301(c)); (e) the term "Fund" means the Ocean and Coastal Development Impact Assistance Fund established pursuant to section 4(a); (f) the term "length of coastal shoreline" means the length of tidal shoreline mileage and/or Great Lakes shoreline mileage of all coastal States and terri tories based on the most recently available official data from, or accepted by, the National Ocean Survey in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 (g) the term "Outer Continental Shelf” means all submerged lands lying seaward and outside of the area of "lands beneath navigable waters" as defined in sec tion 2(a) of the Submerged Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1301 (a)), and of which the subsoil and seabed appertain to the United States and are subject to its jurisdiction and control; (h) the term "royalty revenues" means all revenues collected by the Federal Government derived from rents, royalties; and profit share payments from Outer Continental Shelf leases; (i) the term "Secretary" means the Secretary of Commerce; (j) the term "State" means any coastal State or coastal territory; and (k) the term "tract" means the geographic and legal extent of a single lease area identified by the Secretary of the Interior which is within the Outer 20 OCEAN AND COASTAL DEVELOPMENT IMPACT ASSISTANCE 21 222223 FUND SEC. 4. (a) There is established in the Treasury of the 23 United States a Fund to be known as the Ocean and Coastal 24 Development Impact Assistance Fund (hereinafter referred 25 to as "the Fund"). The amount to be included in the Fund |