TH ST CONGRESS SESSION H. R. 373 - GPO

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113TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 373

To amend title VII of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 23, 2013

Mrs. CAPPS (for herself, Mr. FARR, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. HOLT, Ms. LEE of

California, and Mr. GRIJALVA) introduced the following bill; which was

referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

A BILL To amend title VII of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, 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 ‘‘Oil Pollution Research 4

and Development Program Reauthorization Act of 2013’’. 5

SEC. 2. FEDERAL OIL POLLUTION RESEARCH COMMITTEE. 6

(a) PURPOSES.—Section 7001(a)(2) of the Oil Pollu-7

tion Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2761(a)(2)) is amended by 8

striking ‘‘State’’ and inserting ‘‘State and tribal’’. 9

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(b) MEMBERSHIP.—Section 7001(a)(3) of such Act 1

(33 U.S.C. 2761(a)(3)) is amended to read as follows: 2

‘‘(3) STRUCTURE.— 3

‘‘(A) MEMBERS.—The Interagency Com-4

mittee shall consist of representatives from the 5

following: 6

‘‘(i) The Coast Guard. 7

‘‘(ii) The Department of Commerce, 8

including the National Oceanic and Atmos-9

pheric Administration. 10

‘‘(iii) The Department of the Interior. 11

‘‘(iv) The Environmental Protection 12

Agency. 13

‘‘(B) COLLABORATING AGENCIES.—The 14

Interagency Committee shall collaborate with 15

the following: 16

‘‘(i) The National Institute of Stand-17

ards and Technology. 18

‘‘(ii) The Department of Energy. 19

‘‘(iii) The Department of Transpor-20

tation, including the Maritime Administra-21

tion and the Pipeline and Hazardous Mate-22

rials Safety Administration. 23


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‘‘(iv) The Department of Defense, in-1

cluding the Army Corps of Engineers and 2

the Navy. 3

‘‘(v) The Department of Homeland 4

Security, including the United States Fire 5

Administration in the Federal Emergency 6

Management Agency. 7

‘‘(vi) The National Aeronautics and 8

Space Administration. 9

‘‘(vii) The National Science Founda-10

tion. 11

‘‘(viii) Other Federal agencies, as ap-12

propriate.’’. 13

(c) ROLE OF THE CHAIR.—Section 7001(a)(4) of 14

such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(a)(4)) is amended to read as 15

follows: 16

‘‘(4) CHAIR.— 17

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A representative of 18

the Coast Guard shall serve as Chair. 19

‘‘(B) ROLE OF CHAIR.—The primary role 20

of the Chair shall be to ensure that— 21

‘‘(i) the activities of the Interagency 22

Committee and the agencies listed in para-23

graph (3)(B) are coordinated; 24


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‘‘(ii) the implementation plans re-1

quired under subsection (b)(1) are com-2

pleted and submitted; 3

‘‘(iii) the annual reports required 4

under subsection (e) are completed and 5

submitted; 6

‘‘(iv) the Interagency Committee 7

meets in accordance with the requirements 8

of paragraph (5); and 9

‘‘(v) the Oil Pollution Research Advi-10

sory Committee under subsection (f) is es-11

tablished and utilized.’’. 12

(d) ACTIVITIES.—Section 7001(a) of such Act (33 13

U.S.C. 2761(a)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-14

lowing: 15

‘‘(5) ACTIVITIES.— 16

‘‘(A) ONGOING, COORDINATED EFFORTS.— 17

The Interagency Committee shall ensure that 18

the research, development, and demonstration 19

efforts authorized by this section are coordi-20

nated and conducted on an ongoing basis. 21

‘‘(B) MEETINGS.— 22

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Interagency 23

Committee shall meet, or otherwise com-24

municate, as appropriate, to— 25


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‘‘(I) plan program-related activi-1

ties; and 2

‘‘(II) determine whether the pro-3

gram is resulting in the development 4

of new or improved methods and tech-5

nologies to prevent, detect, respond to, 6

contain, and mitigate oil discharge. 7

‘‘(ii) FREQUENCY.—In no event shall 8

the Interagency Committee meet less than 9

once per year. 10

‘‘(C) INFORMATION EXCHANGE.—The 11

Interagency Committee, acting through the Ad-12

ministrator of the National Oceanic and Atmos-13

pheric Administration, shall develop a national 14

information clearinghouse on oil discharge 15

that— 16

‘‘(i) includes scientific information 17

and research on preparedness, response, 18

and restoration; and 19

‘‘(ii) serves as a single electronic ac-20

cess and input point for Federal agencies, 21

emergency responders, the research com-22

munity, and other interested parties for 23

such information.’’. 24


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SEC. 3. OIL POLLUTION RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY 1

PLAN. 2

(a) IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.—Section 7001(b)(1) of 3

such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(b)(1)) is amended— 4

(1) by striking ‘‘180 days after the date of en-5

actment of this Act’’ and inserting ‘‘180 days after 6

the date of enactment of the Oil Pollution Research 7

and Development Program Reauthorization Act of 8

2013 and periodically thereafter, as appropriate, but 9

not less than once every 5 years’’; 10

(2) by striking subparagraph (A) and inserting 11

the following: 12

‘‘(A) identify the roles and responsibilities 13

of each member agency of the Interagency 14

Committee under subsection (a)(3)(A) and each 15

of the collaborating agencies under subsection 16

(a)(3)(B);’’; 17

(3) in subparagraph (B) by inserting ‘‘contain-18

ment,’’ after ‘‘response,’’; 19

(4) in subparagraph (D) by inserting ‘‘contain-20

ment,’’ after ‘‘response,’’; 21

(5) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of subpara-22

graph (E); 23

(6) in subparagraph (F)— 24

(A) by striking ‘‘the States’’ through ‘‘re-25

search needs’’ and inserting ‘‘State and tribal 26


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governments, regional oil pollution research 1

needs, including natural seeps and pollution re-2

sulting from importing oil from overseas,’’; and 3

(B) by striking the period at the end and 4

inserting a semicolon; and 5

(7) by adding at the end the following new sub-6

paragraphs: 7

‘‘(G) identify the information needed to 8

conduct risk assessment and risk analysis re-9

search to effectively prevent oil discharges, in-10

cluding information on human factors and deci-11

sionmaking, and to protect the environment; 12

and 13

‘‘(H) identify a methodology that— 14

‘‘(i) provides for the solicitation, eval-15

uation, preapproval, funding, and utiliza-16

tion of technologies and research projects 17

developed by the public and private sector 18

in advance of future oil discharges; and 19

‘‘(ii) where appropriate, ensures that 20

such technologies are readily available for 21

rapid testing and potential deployment and 22

that research projects can be implemented 23

during an incident response.’’. 24


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(b) ADVICE AND GUIDANCE.—Section 7001(b)(2) of 1

such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(b)(2)) is amended to read as 2

follows: 3

‘‘(2) ADVICE AND GUIDANCE.— 4

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Chair shall solicit 5

advice and guidance in the development of the 6

research plan under paragraph (1) from— 7

‘‘(i) the Oil Pollution Research Advi-8

sory Committee established under sub-9

section (f); 10

‘‘(ii) the National Institute of Stand-11

ards and Technology on issues relating to 12

quality assurance and standards measure-13

ments; 14

‘‘(iii) third party standard-setting or-15

ganizations on issues relating to voluntary 16

consensus standards; and 17

‘‘(iv) the public in accordance with 18

subparagraph (B). 19

‘‘(B) PUBLIC COMMENT.—Prior to the 20

submission of the research plan to Congress 21

under paragraph (1), the research plan shall be 22

published in the Federal Register and subject 23

to a public comment period of 30 days. The 24

Chair shall review the public comments received 25


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and incorporate those comments into the plan, 1

as appropriate.’’. 2

(c) REVIEW.—Section 7001(b) of such Act (33 3

U.S.C. 2761(b)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-4

lowing: 5

‘‘(3) REVIEW.—After the submission of each re-6

search plan to Congress under paragraph (1), the 7

Chair shall contract with the National Academy of 8

Sciences— 9

‘‘(A) to review the research plan; 10

‘‘(B) to assess the adequacy of the re-11

search plan; and 12

‘‘(C) to submit a report to Congress on the 13

conclusions of the assessment. 14

‘‘(4) INCORPORATION OF RECOMMENDA-15

TIONS.—The Chair shall address any recommenda-16

tions in the review conducted under paragraph (3) 17

and shall incorporate such recommendations into the 18

research plan, as appropriate.’’. 19

SEC. 4. OIL POLLUTION RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 20

PROGRAM. 21

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Section 7001(c)(1) of such 22

Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(c)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘re-23

search and development, as provided in this subsection’’ 24


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and inserting ‘‘research, development, and demonstration, 1

as provided in this subsection and subsection (a)(2)’’. 2

(b) INNOVATIVE OIL POLLUTION TECHNOLOGY.— 3

Section 7001(c)(2) of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(c)(2)) is 4

amended— 5

(1) in the matter before subparagraph (A), by 6

striking ‘‘preventing or mitigating’’ and inserting 7

‘‘preventing, detecting, containing, recovering, or 8

mitigating’’; 9

(2) by striking subparagraph (I); 10

(3) by striking the period at the end of sub-11

paragraph (J) and inserting a semicolon; 12

(4) by redesignating subparagraph (J) as sub-13

paragraph (I); and 14

(5) by adding at the end the following: 15

‘‘(J) technologies and methods to address 16

oil discharge on land and in inland waters, 17

coastal areas, offshore areas, including deep-18

water and ultra-deepwater areas, and polar and 19

other icy areas; and 20

‘‘(K) modeling and simulation capabilities, 21

including tools and technologies, that can be 22

used to facilitate effective recovery and contain-23

ment of oil discharge during incident re-24

sponse.’’. 25


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(c) OIL POLLUTION TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION.— 1

Section 7001(c)(3) of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(c)(3)) is 2

amended to read as follows: 3

‘‘(3) OIL POLLUTION TECHNOLOGY EVALUA-4

TION.—The program established under this sub-5

section shall provide for the evaluation of oil pollu-6

tion prevention, containment, and mitigation tech-7

nologies, including— 8

‘‘(A) the evaluation of the performance and 9

effectiveness of such technologies in preventing, 10

detecting, containing, recovering, and miti-11

gating oil discharges; 12

‘‘(B) the evaluation of the environmental 13

effects of the use of such technologies; 14

‘‘(C) the evaluation and testing of tech-15

nologies developed independently of the research 16

and development program established under 17

this subsection, including technologies developed 18

by small businesses; 19

‘‘(D) the establishment, with the advice 20

and guidance of the National Institute of 21

Standards and Technology, of standards and 22

testing protocols traceable to national standards 23

to measure the performance of oil pollution pre-24


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vention, containment, or mitigation tech-1

nologies; 2

‘‘(E) an evaluation of the environmental 3

effects and utility of controlled field testing; 4

‘‘(F) the use, where appropriate, of con-5

trolled field testing to evaluate real-world appli-6

cation of new or improved oil discharge preven-7

tion, response, containment, recovery, or mitiga-8

tion technologies; 9

‘‘(G) an evaluation of the effectiveness of 10

oil pollution prevention technologies based on 11

probabilistic risk analyses of the system; and 12

‘‘(H) research conducted by the Environ-13

mental Protection Agency and other appro-14

priate Federal agencies for the evaluation and 15

testing of technologies that demonstrate— 16

‘‘(i) maximum effectiveness, including 17

application and delivery mechanisms; and 18

‘‘(ii) minimum effects, including tox-19

icity, to human health and the environment 20

in both the near-term and long-term.’’. 21

(d) OIL POLLUTION EFFECTS RESEARCH.—Section 22

7001(c)(4) of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(c)(4)) is amend-23

ed— 24


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(1) by striking subparagraph (A) and inserting 1

the following: 2

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.— 3

‘‘(i) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Inter-4

agency Committee, acting through the Ad-5

ministrator of the National Oceanic and 6

Atmospheric Administration, shall estab-7

lish a research program to monitor and 8

scientifically evaluate the environmental ef-9

fects, including long-term effects, of oil dis-10

charge. 11

‘‘(ii) SPECIFICATIONS.—Such pro-12

gram shall include the following elements: 13

‘‘(I) Research on and the devel-14

opment of effective tools to detect, 15

measure, observe, analyze, monitor, 16

model, and forecast the presence, 17

transport, fate, and effect of an oil 18

discharge throughout the environ-19

ment, including tools and models to 20

accurately measure and predict the 21

flow of oil discharged. 22

‘‘(II) The development of meth-23

ods, including economic methods, to 24

assess and predict damages to natural 25


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resources, including air quality, result-1

ing from oil discharges, including in 2

economically disadvantaged commu-3

nities and areas. 4

‘‘(III) The identification of types 5

of ecologically sensitive areas at par-6

ticular risk from oil discharges, such 7

as inland waters, coastal areas, off-8

shore areas, including deepwater and 9

ultra-deepwater areas, and polar and 10

other icy areas. 11

‘‘(IV) The preparation of sci-12

entific monitoring and evaluation 13

plans for the areas identified under 14

subclause (III) to be implemented in 15

the event of major oil discharges in 16

such areas. 17

‘‘(V) The collection of environ-18

mental baseline data in the areas 19

identified under subclause (III) if 20

such data are insufficient. 21

‘‘(VI) The use of both onshore 22

and offshore air quality monitoring to 23

study the effects of an oil discharge 24

and oil discharge cleanup technologies 25


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on air quality and making the results 1

of such monitoring and health and 2

safety warnings readily available to 3

the public, including emergency re-4

sponders, the research community, 5

local residents, and other interested 6

parties. 7

‘‘(VII) Research on technologies, 8

methods, and standards for protecting 9

removal personnel and for volunteers 10

that may participate in incident re-11

sponses, including training, adequate 12

supervision, protective equipment, 13

maximum exposure limits, and decon-14

tamination procedures.’’; 15

(2) in subparagraph (B)— 16

(A) by striking ‘‘(B) The Department of 17

Commerce’’ and all that follows through ‘‘fu-18

ture oil discharges.’’ and inserting the following: 19

‘‘(B) CONDITIONS.—The Interagency Com-20

mittee, acting through the Administrator of the 21

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-22

tion, shall conduct research activities under 23

subparagraph (A) for areas in which— 24


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‘‘(i) the amount of oil discharged ex-1

ceeds 250,000 gallons; and 2

‘‘(ii) a study of the long-term environ-3

mental effects of the discharge would be of 4

significant scientific value, especially for 5

preventing or responding to future oil dis-6

charges.’’; 7

(B) by striking ‘‘ATHOS I, and’’ and in-8

serting ‘‘ATHOS I;’’; and 9

(C) by striking the period at the end and 10

inserting ‘‘; Prince William Sound, where oil 11

was discharged by the EXXON VALDEZ; and 12

the Gulf of Mexico, where oil was discharged by 13

the DEEPWATER HORIZON.’’; and 14

(3) in subparagraph (C) by striking ‘‘Research’’ 15

and inserting ‘‘COORDINATION.—Research’’. 16

(e) DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS.—Section 17

7001(c)(6) of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(c)(6)) is amend-18

ed— 19

(1) by striking the first sentence and inserting 20

the following: ‘‘The United States Coast Guard, in 21

conjunction with such agencies as the President may 22

designate, shall conduct a total of 2 port oil pollu-23

tion minimization demonstration projects, 1 with the 24

Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, 25


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and 1 with a port on the Great Lakes, for the pur-1

pose of developing and demonstrating integrated 2

port oil pollution prevention and cleanup systems 3

that utilize the information and implement the im-4

proved practices and technologies developed from the 5

research, development, and demonstration program 6

established in this section.’’; and 7

(2) in the second sentence by striking ‘‘oil spill’’ 8

and inserting ‘‘oil discharge’’. 9

(f) SIMULATED ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING.—Section 10

7001(c)(7) of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(c)(7)) is amended 11

by inserting ‘‘Oil pollution technology testing and evalua-12

tions shall be given priority over all other activities per-13

formed at such Research Center.’’ after ‘‘evaluations.’’. 14

(g) REGIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAM.— 15

(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 7001(c)(8) of such 16

Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(c)(8)) is amended— 17

(A) in subparagraph (A)— 18

(i) by striking ‘‘program of competi-19

tive grants’’ and inserting ‘‘program of 20

peer-reviewed, competitive grants’’; and 21

(ii) by striking ‘‘(1989)’’ and inserting 22

‘‘(2009)’’; 23


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(B) in subparagraph (C) by striking ‘‘the 1

entity or entities which’’ and inserting ‘‘at least 2

one entity that’’; and 3

(C) by adding at the end the following new 4

subparagraph: 5

‘‘(H) In carrying out this paragraph, the Inter-6

agency Committee shall coordinate the program of 7

peer-reviewed, competitive grants to universities or 8

other research institutions, including Minority Serv-9

ing Institutions as defined under section 371(a) of 10

the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 11

1067q(a)), and provide consideration to such institu-12

tions in the recommendations for awarding grants.’’. 13

(2) FUNDING.—Section 7001(c)(9) of such Act 14

(33 U.S.C. 2761(c)(9)) is amended by striking 15

‘‘1991’’ and all that follows through ‘‘shall be avail-16

able’’ and inserting ‘‘2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 17

2018, there are authorized to be appropriated from 18

amounts in the Fund $12,000,000’’. 19

SEC. 5. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION. 20

Section 7001(d) of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(d)) is 21


‘‘(d) INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.—In accordance 23

with the research plan submitted under subsection (b), the 24


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Interagency Committee shall engage in international co-1

operation by— 2

‘‘(1) harnessing global expertise through col-3

laborative partnerships with foreign governments 4

and research entities, and domestic and foreign pri-5

vate actors, including nongovernmental organizations 6

and private sector companies; and 7

‘‘(2) leveraging public and private capital, tech-8

nology, expertise, and services towards innovative 9

models that can be instituted to conduct collabo-10

rative oil pollution research, development, and dem-11

onstration activities, including controlled field tests 12

of oil discharges and other activities designed to im-13

prove oil recovery and cleanup.’’. 14

SEC. 6. ANNUAL REPORTS. 15

Section 7001(e) of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761(e)) is 16


‘‘(e) ANNUAL REPORT.— 18

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Concurrent with the sub-19

mission to Congress of the President’s annual budg-20

et request in each year after the date of enactment 21

of the Oil Pollution Research and Development Pro-22

gram Reauthorization Act of 2013, the Chair of the 23

Interagency Committee shall submit to Congress a 24

report describing the— 25


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‘‘(A) activities carried out under this sec-1

tion in the preceding fiscal year, including— 2

‘‘(i) a description of major research 3

conducted on oil discharge prevention, de-4

tection, containment, recovery, and mitiga-5

tion techniques in all environments by each 6

agency described in subparagraphs (A) and 7

(B) of subsection (a)(3); and 8

‘‘(ii) a summary of— 9

‘‘(I) projects in which the agency 10

contributed funding or other re-11

sources; 12

‘‘(II) major projects undertaken 13

by State and tribal governments, and 14

foreign governments; and 15

‘‘(III) major projects undertaken 16

by the private sector and educational 17

institutions; 18

‘‘(B) activities being carried out under this 19

section in the current fiscal year, including a 20

description of major research and development 21

activities on oil discharge prevention, detection, 22

containment, recovery, and mitigation tech-23

nologies and techniques in all environments that 24

each agency will conduct or contribute to; and 25


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‘‘(C) activities proposed to be carried out 1

under this section in the subsequent fiscal year, 2

including an analysis of how these activities will 3

further the purposes of the program authorized 4

by this section. 5

‘‘(2) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENT.—If the Na-6

tional Academy of Sciences provides recommenda-7

tions on the research plan under section 7001(b)(3), 8

the Chair shall include, in the first annual report 9

under paragraph (1) of this subsection, a description 10

of those recommendations incorporated into the re-11

search plan, and a description of, and explanation 12

for, any recommendations that are not included in 13

such plan.’’. 14

SEC. 7. ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 15

Section 7001 of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761) is further 16

amended— 17

(1) by striking subsection (f); and 18

(2) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-19

lowing: 20

‘‘(f) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.— 21

‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days 22

after the date of enactment of the Oil Pollution Re-23

search and Development Program Reauthorization 24

Act of 2013, the Chair of the Interagency Com-25


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mittee shall establish an advisory committee to be 1

known as the Oil Pollution Research Advisory Com-2

mittee (in this subsection referred to as the ‘advisory 3

committee’). 4

‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.— 5

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The advisory com-6

mittee shall be composed of members appointed 7

by the Chair, in consultation with each member 8

agency described in subsection (a)(3), includ-9

ing— 10

‘‘(i) individuals with extensive knowl-11

edge and research experience or oper-12

ational knowledge of prevention, detection, 13

response, containment, and mitigation of 14

oil discharges; 15

‘‘(ii) individuals broadly representative 16

of stakeholders affected by oil discharges; 17

and 18

‘‘(iii) other individuals, as determined 19

by the Chair. 20

‘‘(B) LIMITATIONS.—The Chair shall— 21

‘‘(i) appoint no more than 25 mem-22

bers that shall not include representatives 23

of the Federal Government, but may in-24


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clude representatives from State, tribal, 1

and local governments; and 2

‘‘(ii) ensure that no class of individ-3

uals described in clause (ii) or (iii) of sub-4

paragraph (A) comprises more than 1⁄3 of 5

the membership of the advisory committee. 6

‘‘(C) TERMS OF SERVICE.— 7

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Members shall be 8

appointed for a 3-year term and may serve 9

for not more than 2 terms, except as pro-10

vided in clause (iii). 11

‘‘(ii) VACANCIES.—Vacancy appoint-12

ments shall be for the remainder of the un-13

expired term of the vacancy. 14

‘‘(iii) SPECIAL RULE.—If a member is 15

appointed to fill a vacancy and the remain-16

der of the unexpired term is less than 1 17

year, the member may subsequently be ap-18

pointed for 2 full terms. 19

‘‘(D) COMPENSATION AND EXPENSES.— 20

Members of the advisory committee shall not be 21

compensated for service on the advisory com-22

mittee, but may be allowed travel expenses, in-23

cluding per diem in lieu of subsistence, in ac-24


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cordance with subchapter I of chapter 57 of 1

title 5, United States Code. 2

‘‘(3) DUTIES.—The advisory committee shall 3

review, advise, and comment on Interagency Com-4

mittee activities, including the following: 5

‘‘(A) Management and functioning of the 6

Interagency Committee. 7

‘‘(B) Collaboration of the Interagency 8

Committee and the agencies listed in subsection 9

(a)(3)(B). 10

‘‘(C) The research and technology develop-11

ment of new or improved response capabilities. 12

‘‘(D) The use of cost-effective research 13

mechanisms. 14

‘‘(E) Research, computation, and modeling 15

needs and other resources needed to develop a 16

comprehensive program of oil pollution re-17

search. 18

‘‘(4) SUBCOMMITTEES.—The advisory com-19

mittee may establish subcommittees of its members. 20

‘‘(5) MEETINGS.—The advisory committee shall 21

meet at least once per year and at other times at the 22

call of the chairperson. 23

‘‘(6) REPORT.—The advisory committee shall 24

submit biennial reports to the Interagency Com-25


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•HR 373 IH

mittee and Congress on the function, activities, and 1

progress of the Interagency Committee and the pro-2

grams established under this section. 3

‘‘(7) EXPIRATION.—Section 14 of the Federal 4

Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not 5

apply to the advisory committee.’’. 6

SEC. 8. FUNDING. 7

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 7001 of such Act (33 8

U.S.C. 2761) is further amended by adding at the end 9

the following new subsection: 10

‘‘(g) FUNDING.— 11

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be 12

appropriated from amounts in the Fund not more 13

than $48,000,000 annually to carry out this section, 14

except for subsection (c)(8). 15

‘‘(2) SPECIFIC ALLOCATIONS.—From the 16

amounts in paragraph (1), there are authorized to 17

be appropriated— 18

‘‘(A) $16,000,000 to the Administrator of 19

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-20

istration annually to carry out this section; and 21

‘‘(B) $2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 22

2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 to carry out the 23

activities in subsection (c)(6).’’. 24


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(b) AUTHORIZATION.—Section 1012(a)(5)(C) of such 1

Act (33 U.S.C. 2712(a)(5)(C)) is amended to read as fol-2

lows: 3

‘‘(C) notwithstanding section 9509(f) of 4

the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, not more 5

than $48,000,000 in each fiscal year shall be 6

available to carry out title VII of this Act; 7

and’’. 8

SEC. 9. ACCESS TO RESEARCH DURING AN EMERGENCY. 9

Section 7001 of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2761) is further 10

amended by adding at the end the following new sub-11

section: 12

‘‘(h) ACCESS TO RESEARCH DURING AN EMER-13

GENCY.—Any entity that receives Federal funding for re-14

search, the methodologies or results of which may be use-15

ful for response activities in the event of an oil discharge 16

incident described in sections 300.300–334 of title 40 of 17

the Code of Federal Regulations, shall, upon request to 18

that entity, make the methodologies or results of such re-19

search available to the Interagency Committee and the 20

Federal On-Scene Coordinator (as defined in section 21

311(a)(21) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 22

(33 U.S.C. 1321(a)(21))). Any methodologies or research 23

results made available under this subsection shall be for 24

use only for purposes of the response activities with re-25


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spect to the oil discharge incident and shall not be avail-1

able for disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United 2

States Code, or included in information made publicly 3

available pursuant to this Act.’’. 4

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Documents

TH ST CONGRESS SESSION H. R. 373 - GPO