| 1 | 1 | | II |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION S. 85 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To require the Secretary of the Interior to partner and collaborate with |
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| 6 | 6 | | the Secretary of Agriculture and the State of Hawaii to address Rapid |
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| 7 | 7 | | Ohia Death, and for other purposes. |
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| 8 | 8 | | IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES |
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| 9 | 9 | | JANUARY14, 2025 |
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| 10 | 10 | | Ms. H |
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| 11 | 11 | | IRONOintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred |
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| 12 | 12 | | to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry |
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| 13 | 13 | | A BILL |
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| 14 | 14 | | To require the Secretary of the Interior to partner and |
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| 15 | 15 | | collaborate with the Secretary of Agriculture and the |
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| 16 | 16 | | State of Hawaii to address Rapid Ohia Death, and for |
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| 17 | 17 | | other purposes. |
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| 18 | 18 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 19 | 19 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 20 | 20 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 21 | 21 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Continued Rapid Ohia 4 |
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| 22 | 22 | | Death Response Act of 2025’’. 5 |
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| 23 | 23 | | SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 |
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| 24 | 24 | | Congress finds that— 7 |
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| 26 | 26 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 |
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| 27 | 27 | | •S 85 IS |
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| 28 | 28 | | (1) the fungus Ceratocystis, known as ‘‘Rapid 1 |
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| 29 | 29 | | Ohia Death’’, has killed more than 1,000,000 native 2 |
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| 30 | 30 | | trees in the State; and 3 |
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| 31 | 31 | | (2) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through 4 |
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| 32 | 32 | | the Chief of the Forest Service and the Adminis-5 |
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| 33 | 33 | | trator of the Agricultural Research Service, has pro-6 |
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| 34 | 34 | | vided funding and staff— 7 |
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| 35 | 35 | | (A) to identify and detect Rapid Ohia 8 |
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| 36 | 36 | | Death; 9 |
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| 37 | 37 | | (B) to prevent the spread of Rapid Ohia 10 |
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| 38 | 38 | | Death; 11 |
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| 39 | 39 | | (C) to identify Ohia trees that are resist-12 |
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| 40 | 40 | | ant to Rapid Ohia Death; and 13 |
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| 41 | 41 | | (D) to propagate trees that are resistant to 14 |
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| 42 | 42 | | Rapid Ohia Death in order to restore the native 15 |
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| 43 | 43 | | forests of the State. 16 |
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| 44 | 44 | | SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 17 |
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| 45 | 45 | | In this Act: 18 |
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| 46 | 46 | | (1) R |
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| 47 | 47 | | APID OHIA DEATH .—The term ‘‘Rapid 19 |
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| 48 | 48 | | Ohia Death’’ means the fungus described in section 20 |
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| 49 | 49 | | 2(1) that has killed more than 1,000,000 native 21 |
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| 50 | 50 | | trees in the State. 22 |
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| 51 | 51 | | (2) S |
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| 52 | 52 | | TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the State 23 |
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| 53 | 53 | | of Hawaii. 24 |
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| 55 | 55 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 |
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| 56 | 56 | | •S 85 IS |
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| 57 | 57 | | SEC. 4. COLLABORATION. 1 |
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| 58 | 58 | | The Secretary of the Interior shall partner and col-2 |
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| 59 | 59 | | laborate with the Secretary of Agriculture and the State 3 |
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| 60 | 60 | | to address Rapid Ohia Death. 4 |
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| 61 | 61 | | SEC. 5. SUSTAINED EFFORTS. 5 |
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| 62 | 62 | | (a) T |
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| 63 | 63 | | RANSMISSION.—The Secretary of the Interior, 6 |
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| 64 | 64 | | acting through the Director of the United States Geologi-7 |
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| 65 | 65 | | cal Survey, shall continue to conduct research on Rapid 8 |
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| 66 | 66 | | Ohia Death vectors and transmission. 9 |
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| 67 | 67 | | (b) U |
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| 68 | 68 | | NGULATEMANAGEMENT.—The Secretary of the 10 |
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| 69 | 69 | | Interior, acting through the Director of the United States 11 |
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| 70 | 70 | | Fish and Wildlife Service, shall continue to partner with 12 |
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| 71 | 71 | | the State and with local stakeholders to manage ungulates 13 |
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| 72 | 72 | | in Rapid Ohia Death control areas on Federal, State, and 14 |
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| 73 | 73 | | private land. 15 |
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| 74 | 74 | | (c) R |
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| 75 | 75 | | ESTORATION AND RESEARCH.—The Secretary 16 |
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| 76 | 76 | | of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest 17 |
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| 77 | 77 | | Service, shall continue to provide— 18 |
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| 78 | 78 | | (1) financial assistance, including to the Sec-19 |
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| 79 | 79 | | retary of the Interior— 20 |
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| 80 | 80 | | (A) to prevent the spread of Rapid Ohia 21 |
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| 81 | 81 | | Death; and 22 |
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| 82 | 82 | | (B) to restore the native forests of the 23 |
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| 83 | 83 | | State; and 24 |
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| 85 | 85 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 |
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| 86 | 86 | | •S 85 IS |
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| 87 | 87 | | (2) staff and necessary infrastructure funding 1 |
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| 88 | 88 | | to the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry to con-2 |
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| 89 | 89 | | duct research on Rapid Ohia Death. 3 |
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| 90 | 90 | | SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 4 |
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| 91 | 91 | | For each of fiscal years 2026 through 2036, there 5 |
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| 92 | 92 | | is authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 to carry out 6 |
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| 93 | 93 | | this Act, including for activities carried out by the Sec-7 |
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| 94 | 94 | | retary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, or 8 |
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| 95 | 95 | | both. 9 |
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| 96 | 96 | | Æ |
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| 98 | 98 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB |
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