I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2731
To direct the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-
istration to conduct high-resolution surveying and mapping of the
lakebeds of the Great Lakes, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL8, 2025
Mrs. M
CCLAIN(for herself, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. DAVIDSON, Mr. POCAN, Mr.
B
ERGMAN, Ms. STEVENS, Mr. HUIZENGA, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. BARRETT, Mr.
S
CHNEIDER, Mr. STAUBER, Ms. SCHOLTEN, Mr. LAWLER, Ms. KAPTUR,
and Ms. C
RAIG) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To direct the Administrator of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration to conduct high-resolution
surveying and mapping of the lakebeds of the Great
Lakes, 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 ‘‘Great Lakes Mapping 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. SURVEYING AND MAPPING OF LAKEBEDS OF THE 1
GREAT LAKES IN HIGH RESOLUTION. 2
(a) H
IGH-RESOLUTIONLAKEBEDMAPPING.—Not 3
later than December 31, 2030, the Administrator of the 4
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (re-5
ferred to in this section as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall 6
carry out a collaborative effort (referred to in this section 7
as the ‘‘mapping effort’’) to survey and map, in high reso-8
lution, the lakebeds of the Great Lakes. 9
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The mapping effort shall include— 10
(1) completing a high-resolution map of the 11
lakebeds of the Great Lakes; 12
(2) collecting and processing high-resolution 13
bathymetric data about the lakebeds of the Great 14
Lakes; 15
(3) using existing systems to catalog bathy-16
metric data and other information regarding the 17
lakebeds of the Great Lakes that the Administrator 18
possesses or has access to independent of the map-19
ping effort or as a result of the mapping effort; and 20
(4) collecting, cataloging, and storing metadata 21
created during the mapping effort. 22
(c) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out the mapping ef-23
fort, the Administrator shall coordinate with— 24
(1) the Governor of any State that borders any 25
of the Great Lakes; 26
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(2) the head of an agency of such a State that 1
is responsible for carrying out policy related to the 2
Great Lakes or the lakebeds of the Great Lakes; 3
(3) the National Ocean Mapping, Exploration, 4
and Characterization Council; 5
(4) the Lakebed 2030 Regional Initiative of the 6
Great Lakes Observing System; 7
(5) other regional ocean observing systems; and 8
(6) any other entity the Administrator deter-9
mines relevant. 10
(d) D
ATAMANAGEMENT; PRODUCTSHARING.—The 11
Administrator, in consultation with regional entities, 12
shall— 13
(1) during the mapping effort and within a rea-14
sonable time (as determined by the Administrator) 15
after the relevant data is collected pursuant to the 16
mapping effort, make publicly available the parts of 17
the high-resolution map of the lakebeds of the Great 18
Lakes that are completed; and 19
(2) not later than, to the extent practicable, 20
180 days after completing the mapping effort— 21
(A) make publicly available— 22
(i) the complete high-resolution map 23
of the lakebeds of the Great Lakes; and 24
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(ii) any additional information, includ-1
ing metadata, collected under subsection 2
(a) that is required to be released to the 3
public under any other provision of law; 4
and 5
(B) incorporate the data from the map 6
into additional products, including nautical 7
charts and other products determined appro-8
priate by the Administrator, such products used 9
for resource mapping and habitat characteriza-10
tion. 11
(e) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-12
tion shall be construed to change any process or procedure 13
used by the Administrator in carrying out the require-14
ments of section 4 of the Digital Coast Act (16 U.S.C. 15
1467) or the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act 16
(33 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). 17
(f) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 19
appropriated to the Administrator $50,000,000 for 20
each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029 to carry out 21
this section. 22
(2) A
VAILABILITY.—Amounts appropriated pur-23
suant to the authorization of appropriations under 24
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paragraph (1) shall remain available through fiscal 1
year 2030. 2
Æ
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