II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION 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
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Mr. M
ERKLEY(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) E
STABLISHMENT.—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) E
LIGIBLEENTITIES.—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) E
LIGIBLEPROJECTS.—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) M
ATCHINGREQUIREMENT.— 12
(1) I
N 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) W
AIVER.—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 undertaken is established 6
on lands owned by or held in trust for an In-7
dian Tribe. 8
(e) G
UIDELINES ANDCRITERIA.—The Administrator 9
shall— 10
(1) issue guidelines for implementation of the 11
grant program established under subsection (a); and 12
(2) establish criteria for evaluating eligible 13
projects, based on best practices, best available 14
science, and community engagement, to rank eligible 15
projects under subsection (c). 16
(f) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 18
appropriated to the Administrator $5,000,000 for 19
each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out 20
this section. 21
(2) A
VAILABILITY TO INDIAN TRIBES.— 22
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Of the amount author-23
ized to be appropriated by paragraph (1) for a 24
fiscal year, not less than $750,000 shall be 25
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available to award grants under this section to 1
eligible entities that are Indian Tribes. 2
(B) C
ONTINGENCY; OUTREACH.—If no In-3
dian Tribe is awarded a grant under this sec-4
tion in a fiscal year— 5
(i) for that fiscal year, the amount de-6
scribed in subparagraph (A) shall be made 7
available to award grants under this sec-8
tion to other eligible entities; and 9
(ii) the Administrator shall conduct 10
outreach to inform Indian Tribes and orga-11
nizations that work with Indian Tribes of 12
the grant program established under sub-13
section (a). 14
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 15
(1) A
DMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-16
trator’’ means the Secretary of Commerce, acting 17
through the Administrator of the National Oceanic 18
and Atmospheric Administration. 19
(2) F
ISHING INDUSTRY.—The term ‘‘fishing in-20
dustry’’ means— 21
(A) processors; 22
(B) commercial fishermen; and 23
(C) recreational fishermen. 24
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(3) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 1
has the meaning given that term in section 4 of the 2
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 3
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 4
(4) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 5
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 6
meaning given that term in section 101(a) of the 7
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)). 8
(5) K
ELP FOREST ECOSYSTEM .—The term 9
‘‘kelp forest ecosystem’’ means a naturally occur-10
ring, biotic system dominated by canopy-forming, 11
stipitate, or prostrate benthic macroalgae and associ-12
ated taxa. 13
(6) L
OCAL GOVERNMENT .—The term ‘‘local 14
government’’ means a unit of general local govern-15
ment, a school district, or other special district es-16
tablished under State law. 17
(7) N
ONPROFIT ORGANIZATION .—The term 18
‘‘nonprofit organization’’ means an organization— 19
(A) described in section 501(c)(3) of the 20
Internal Revenue Code of 1986; and 21
(B) exempt from tax under section 501(a) 22
of such Code. 23
Æ
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