II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 843
To require the Secretary of Commerce to establish the Sea Turtle Rescue
Assistance Grant Program.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH4, 2025
Mr. M
ARKEY(for himself, Mr. CORNYN, Mr. TILLIS, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. VAN
H
OLLEN, and Mr. BOOKER) introduced the following bill; which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans-
portation
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Commerce to establish the Sea
Turtle Rescue Assistance Grant Program.
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 ‘‘Sea Turtle Rescue As-4
sistance and Rehabilitation Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. SEA TURTLE RESCUE, REHABILITATION, AND RE-6
SPONSE. 7
Section 408 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act 8
of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1421f–1) is amended— 9
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:35 Mar 06, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S843.IS S843
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•S 843 IS
(1) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the 1
following: 2
‘‘(10) S
EA TURTLE RESCUE , REHABILITATION, 3
AND RESPONSE.— 4
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to the avail-5
ability of appropriations specific to address sea 6
turtle rescue, rehabilitation, and response, the 7
Secretary of Commerce and the Director of the 8
United States Fish and Wildlife Service shall 9
include separate eligibility for grants under this 10
subsection to address the purposes described in 11
paragraph (2) with respect to sea turtles. 12
‘‘(B) C
ONDITIONS OF GRANT .—A grant 13
awarded under this subsection to address sea 14
turtle rescue, rehabilitation, and response 15
shall— 16
‘‘(i) include the equivalent grant cri-17
teria and administration authorities and 18
requirements described under paragraph 19
(3), subparagraphs (A) and (B) of para-20
graph (4), and paragraphs (5) through (9), 21
developed, as appropriate, and awarded 22
separately for sea turtles and in consulta-23
tion with the United States Fish and Wild-24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:35 Mar 06, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S843.IS S843
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•S 843 IS
life Service in lieu of the Marine Mammal 1
Commission; and 2
‘‘(ii) in addition to the considerations 3
under paragraph (4)(B), also consider re-4
habilitation of stranded sea turtles. 5
‘‘(C) E
LIGIBILITY CRITERIA.—In order to 6
apply for a grant awarded under this subsection 7
to address sea turtle rescue, rehabilitation, and 8
response, an entity shall— 9
‘‘(i) submit an application described 10
in paragraph (5) to the Secretary of Com-11
merce with respect to sea turtles; 12
‘‘(ii) be authorized by and in compli-13
ance with— 14
‘‘(I) an authorization issued 15
under section 10(a)(1)(A) of the En-16
dangered Species Act of 1973 (16 17
U.S.C. 1539(a)(1)(A)) with respect to 18
sea turtles; or 19
‘‘(II) a cooperative agreement en-20
tered into under section 6 of the En-21
dangered Species Act of 1973 (16 22
U.S.C. 1535) with respect to sea tur-23
tles; 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:35 Mar 06, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S843.IS S843
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•S 843 IS
‘‘(iii) comply with the standard condi-1
tions for care and maintenance of captive 2
sea turtles prescribed by the Secretary of 3
the Interior when relevant facilities will be 4
utilized for such purposes; and 5
‘‘(iv) comply with all relevant data re-6
porting, requirements, such as the Sea 7
Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network 8
data collection requirements.’’; 9
(2) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 10
following: 11
‘‘(c) R
ESCUE ANDRAPIDRESPONSEFUNDS.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is established in the 13
Treasury of the United States— 14
‘‘(A) an interest-bearing fund to known as 15
the ‘Joseph R. Geraci Marine Mammal Rescue 16
and Rapid Response Fund’; and 17
‘‘(B) an interest-bearing fund to be known 18
as the ‘Sea Turtle Rescue, Rehabilitation, and 19
Rapid Response Fund’. 20
‘‘(2) U
SE OF FUNDS.—Amounts in the funds 21
established under paragraph (1) shall be available 22
only for use by the Secretary to provide emergency 23
assistance.’’; and 24
(3) in subsection (d)— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:35 Mar 06, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S843.IS S843
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•S 843 IS
(A) in paragraph (1)— 1
(i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 2
‘‘marine mammal rescue and response’’ 3
after ‘‘to carry out the’’; 4
(ii) by redesignating subparagraph 5
(B) as subparagraph (C); 6
(iii) by inserting after clause (ii) of 7
subparagraph (A) the following: 8
‘‘(B) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS 9
WITH RESPECT TO SEA TURTLE RESCUE , REHA-10
BILITATION, AND RESPONSE.—There is author-11
ized to be appropriated for the Secretary of 12
Commerce to carry out the sea turtle rescue, re-13
habilitation, and response grant program under 14
subsection (b)(10), $5,000,000 for each of fis-15
cal years 2025 through 2030, to remain avail-16
able until expended.’’; and 17
(iv) in subparagraph (C), as redesig-18
nated by clause (ii), by inserting ‘‘or (B)’’ 19
after ‘‘subparagraph (A)’’; and 20
(B) by striking paragraph (2) and insert-21
ing the following: 22
‘‘(2) R
ESCUE AND RAPID RESPONSE FUNDS .— 23
There is authorized to be appropriated— 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:35 Mar 06, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S843.IS S843
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6
•S 843 IS
‘‘(A) to the Joseph R. Geraci Marine 1
Mammal Rescue and Rapid Response Fund 2
$500,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 3
2030; and 4
‘‘(B) to the Sea Turtle Rescue, Rehabilita-5
tion, and Rapid Response Fund $500,000 for 6
each of fiscal years 2025 through 2030.’’. 7
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:35 Mar 06, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S843.IS S843
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB