United States S 513: Help Our Kelp Act of 2025

Bill Text

II
119TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 513
To require the Secretary of Commerce to establish and carry out a grant
program to conserve, restore, and manage kelp forest ecosystems, and
for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 11, 2025
Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. KING, Mr. WYDEN, and Mr. PADILLA) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Commerce to establish and carry
out a grant program to conserve, restore, and manage
kelp forest ecosystems, 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 ‘‘Help Our Kelp Act 4
of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. GRANTS TO CONSERVE, RESTORE, AND MANAGE 6
KELP FOREST ECOSYSTEMS. 7
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Administrator shall es-8
tablish, not later than 180 days after the date of the en-9
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actment of this Act, and carry out a grant program under 1
which the Administrator shall award grants to eligible en-2
tities described in subsection (b) to carry out eligible 3
projects described in subsection (c) relating to the con-4
servation, restoration, or management of kelp forest eco-5
systems. 6
(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible for a grant 7
under this section, an entity shall— 8
(1) be— 9
(A) a member of the fishing industry; 10
(B) an institution of higher education; 11
(C) a nonprofit organization; 12
(D) an Indian Tribe; 13
(E) a State agency; or 14
(F) a local government; 15
(2) consult or collaborate with any other entity 16
described in paragraph (1) throughout the develop-17
ment or implementation of a project relating to the 18
conservation, restoration, or management of kelp 19
forest ecosystems; and 20
(3) submit to the Administrator an application 21
describing that project at such time, in such man-22
ner, and containing such information as the Admin-23
istrator may require, including information regard-24
ing— 25
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(A) what criteria will be used to monitor 1
and evaluate the effectiveness of the project; 2
and 3
(B) the qualifications of the applicant to 4
conduct, monitor, and evaluate the project. 5
(c) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.—The Administrator shall 6
award grants to eligible entities for projects that— 7
(1) address the greatest relative regional de-8
clines in kelp forest ecosystems; 9
(2) focus on elements such as— 10
(A) the long-term resilience of kelp forest 11
ecosystems; 12
(B) long-term socioeconomic resilience re-13
lated to kelp forest ecosystems; 14
(C) kelp forest seeding and connectivity; 15
(D) reestablishing or recovering natural 16
trophic relationships and structure to support 17
the resilience of kelp forest ecosystems through 18
actions such as predator control through tar-19
geted urchin removal and the recovery of sun-20
flower sea stars; 21
(E) monitoring and assessment of kelp for-22
est ecosystems; 23
(F) integration of Indigenous knowledge 24
and cultural practices into restoration and mon-25
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itoring of kelp forest ecosystems through con-1
sultation with Indian Tribes or promotion of 2
Federal or State co-management with Indian 3
Tribes; or 4
(G) other efforts to restore kelp forest eco-5
systems and prevent large-scale losses of kelp 6
forests; or 7
(3) are identified by Indian Tribes or Federal 8
or State restoration or management plans as focal 9
areas for recovery of kelp forests and associated spe-10
cies. 11
(d) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.— 12
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-13
graph (2), the amount of Federal funding received 14
as a grant under this section by an eligible entity 15
may not exceed 85 percent of the total cost of the 16
project for which the grant is awarded. For the pur-17
poses of this paragraph, the non-Federal share of 18
the costs of a project may be provided by in-kind 19
contributions and other noncash support. 20
(2) WAIVER.—The Administrator may waive all 21
or part of the requirement in paragraph (1) if the 22
Administrator determines that— 23
(A) no reasonable means are available 24
through which an eligible entity applying for a 25
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grant under this section can meet that require-1
ment; 2
(B) the probable benefit of the project out-3
weighs the public interest in such requirement; 4
and 5
(C) the project u