United States S 381: National Ocean Exploration Act

Bill Text

II
117TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 381
To establish the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and Characterization
Council, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 23, 2021
Mr. WICKER (for himself, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. SCHATZ, Ms. MURKOWSKI, and
Mr. WHITEHOUSE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice
and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor-
tation
A BILL
To establish the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, and
Characterization Council, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Ocean Explo-4
ration Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress makes the following findings: 7
(1) The health and resilience of the ocean are 8
vital to the security and economy of the United 9
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States and to the lives of the people of the United 1
States. 2
(2) The United States depends on the ocean to 3
regulate weather and climate, to sustain and protect 4
the diversity of life, for maritime shipping, for na-5
tional defense, and for food, energy, medicine, recre-6
ation, and other services essential to the people of 7
the United States and all humankind. 8
(3) The prosperity, security, and well-being of 9
the United States depend on successful under-10
standing and stewardship of the ocean. 11
(4) Interdisciplinary cooperation and engage-12
ment among government agencies, research institu-13
tions, nongovernmental organizations, States, and 14
the private sector are essential for successful stew-15
ardship of ocean and coastal environments, national 16
economic growth, national security, and development 17
of agile strategies that develop, promote, and use 18
new technologies. 19
(5) Ocean exploration can help the people of the 20
United States understand how to be effective stew-21
ards of the ocean and serve as catalysts and enablers 22
for other sectors of the economy. 23
(6) Mapping, exploration, and characterization 24
of the ocean provides basic, essential information to 25
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protect and restore the marine environment, stimu-1
late economic activity, and provide security for the 2
United States. 3
(7) A robust national ocean exploration pro-4
gram engaging multiple Federal agencies, the pri-5
vate sector, nongovernmental organizations, and aca-6
demia is— 7
(A) essential to the interests of the United 8
States and vital to its security and economy 9
and the health and well-being of all people of 10
the United States; and 11
(B) critical to reestablish the United 12
States at the forefront of global ocean explo-13
ration and stewardship. 14
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 15
In this Act: 16
(1) CHARACTERIZATION.—The term ‘‘charac-17
terization’’ refers to activities that provide com-18
prehensive data and interpretations for a specific 19
area of interest of the seafloor, sub-bottom, water 20
column, or hydrologic features, such as water masses 21
and currents, in direct support of specific research, 22
environmental protection, resource management, pol-23
icymaking, or applied mission objectives. 24
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(2) EXPLORATION.—The term ‘‘exploration’’ re-1
fers to activities that provide— 2
(A) a multidisciplinary view of an unknown 3
or poorly understood area of the seafloor, sub- 4
bottom, or water column; and 5
(B) an initial assessment of the physical, 6
chemical, geological, biological, archeological, or 7
other characteristics of such an area. 8
(3) MAPPING.—The term ‘‘mapping’’ refers to 9
activities that provide comprehensive data and infor-10
mation needed to understand seafloor characteris-11
tics, such as depth, topography, bottom type, sedi-12
ment composition and distribution, underlying geo-13
logic structure, and benthic flora and fauna. 14
SEC. 4. OCEAN POLICY COMMITTEE. 15
(a) SUBCOMMITTEES.—Section 8932(c) of title 10, 16
United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 17
‘‘(c) SUBCOMMITTEES.—(1) The Committee shall in-18
clude— 19
‘‘(A) a subcommittee to be known as the ‘Ocean 20
Science and Technology Subcommittee’; and 21
‘‘(B) a subcommittee to be known as the ‘Ocean 22
Resource Management Subcommittee’. 23
‘‘(2) In discharging its responsibilities in support of 24
agreed-upon scientific needs, and to assist in the execution 25
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of the responsibilities described in subsection (b),