II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 93
To amend the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control
Act of 1998 to address harmful algal blooms, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY14, 2025
Mr. S
ULLIVAN(for himself, Ms. BALDWIN, Ms. COLLINS, Mr. CORNYN, Mr.
M
ERKLEY, Mr. PETERS, and Mr. WHITEHOUSE) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To amend the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research
and Control Act of 1998 to address harmful algal
blooms, 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 ‘‘Harmful Algal Bloom 4
and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 5
2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM 1
AND HYPOXIA RESEARCH AND CONTROL ACT 2
OF 1998. 3
(a) A
SSESSMENTS.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 603 of the Harmful 5
Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act 6
of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 4001) is amended— 7
(A) in the section heading, by striking 8
‘‘
ASSESSMENTS ’’ and inserting ‘‘TASK 9
FORCE, ASSESSMENTS , AND ACTION 10
STRATEGY’’; 11
(B) in subsection (a)— 12
(i) by redesignating paragraphs (13) 13
and (14) as paragraphs (14) and (15), re-14
spectively; and 15
(ii) by inserting after paragraph (12) 16
the following: 17
‘‘(13) the Department of Energy;’’; 18
(C) by striking subsections (b), (c), (d), 19
(e), (g), (h), and (i) and redesignating sub-20
section (f) as subsection (b); 21
(D) in subsection (b), as so redesignated— 22
(i) in paragraph (1), in the first sen-23
tence, by striking ‘‘coastal waters including 24
the Great Lakes’’ and inserting ‘‘marine, 25
estuarine, and freshwater systems’’; and 26
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(ii) in paragraph (2)— 1
(I) by amending subparagraph 2
(A) to read as follows: 3
‘‘(A) examine— 4
‘‘(i) the causes and ecological con-5
sequences of hypoxia on marine and aquat-6
ic species in their environments; and 7
‘‘(ii) the costs of hypoxia, including 8
impacts on food safety and security;’’; 9
(II) by redesignating subpara-10
graphs (B), (C), and (D) as subpara-11
graphs (D), (E), and (F), respectively; 12
(III) by inserting after subpara-13
graph (A) the following: 14
‘‘(B) examine the effect of other environ-15
mental stressors on hypoxia; 16
‘‘(C) evaluate alternatives for reducing, 17
mitigating, and controlling hypoxia and its envi-18
ronmental impacts;’’; and 19
(IV) in subparagraph (E), as re-20
designated by subclause (II), by strik-21
ing ‘‘hypoxia modeling and monitoring 22
data’’ and inserting ‘‘hypoxia mod-23
eling, forecasting, and monitoring and 24
observation data’’; and 25
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(E) by adding at the end the following: 1
‘‘(c) A
CTIONSTRATEGY AND SCIENTIFICASSESS-2
MENT FORMARINE ANDFRESHWATERHARMFULALGAL 3
B
LOOMS.— 4
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not less frequently than 5
once every 5 years, the Task Force shall complete 6
and submit to Congress an action strategy for harm-7
ful algal blooms in the United States. 8
‘‘(2) E
LEMENTS.—Each Action Strategy 9
shall— 10
‘‘(A) examine, and include a scientific as-11
sessment of, marine and freshwater harmful 12
algal blooms, including such blooms— 13
‘‘(i) in the Great Lakes; 14
‘‘(ii) in the upper reaches of estuaries; 15
‘‘(iii) in freshwater lakes and rivers; 16
‘‘(iv) in coastal and marine waters; 17
and 18
‘‘(v) that originate in freshwater lakes 19
or rivers and migrate to coastal waters; 20
‘‘(B) examine the causes, ecological con-21
sequences or physiological consequences on 22
wildlife function, and economic or cultural im-23
pacts, including food safety and security and 24
subsistence use, of harmful algal blooms; 25
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‘‘(C) examine the effect of other environ-1
mental stressors on harmful algal blooms; 2
‘‘(D) examine potential methods to pre-3
vent, control, and mitigate harmful algal blooms 4
and the potential ecological, subsistence use, 5
and economic costs and benefits of such meth-6
ods; 7
‘‘(E) identify priorities for research needed 8
to advance techniques and technologies to de-9
tect, predict, monitor, respond to, and minimize 10
the occurrence, duration, and severity of harm-11
ful algal blooms, including recommendations to 12
eliminate significant gaps in harmful algal 13
bloom forecasting, monitoring, and observation 14
data; 15
‘‘(F) evaluate progress made by, and the 16
needs of, activities and actions of the Task 17
Force to prevent, control, and mitigate harmful 18
algal blooms; 19
‘‘(G) identify ways to improve coordination 20
and prevent unnecessary duplication of effort 21
among Federal agencies with respect to re-22
search on harmful algal blooms; and 23
‘‘(H) include regional chapters relating to 24
the requirements described in this paragraph in 25
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order to highlight geographically and eco-1
logically diverse locations with significant eco-2
logical, subsistence use, cultural, and economic 3
impacts from harmful algal blooms. 4
‘‘(d) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out subsections 5
(b) and (c), the Task Force shall consult with— 6
‘‘(1) States, Indian tribes, and local govern-7
ments; and 8
‘‘(2) appropriate industries (including fisheries, 9
agriculture, and fertilizer), academic institutions, 10
and nongovernmental organizations with relevant ex-11
pertise.’’. 12
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-13
tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 14
Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383; 112 Stat. 3412; 15
136 Stat. 1268) is amended by striking the item re-16
lating to section 603 and inserting the following: 17
‘‘Sec. 603. Task Force, assessments, and Action Strategy.’’.
(3) CONFORMING AMENDMENT .—Section 102 18
of the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Amend-19
ments Act of 2004 (33 U.S.C. 4001a) is amended 20
by striking ‘‘In developing’’ and all that follows 21
through ‘‘management.’’. 22
(b) N
ATIONALHARMFULALGALBLOOM ANDHY-23
POXIAPROGRAM.—Section 603A of the Harmful Algal 24
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Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 1
(33 U.S.C. 4002) is amended— 2
(1) in subsection (a)— 3
(A) in paragraph (1)— 4
(i) by striking ‘‘predicting,’’ and in-5
serting ‘‘monitoring, observing, fore-6
casting,’’; and 7
(ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ after the semi-8
colon; and 9
(B) by striking paragraph (2) and insert-10
ing the following: 11
‘‘(2) the scientific assessment submitted under 12
section 603(b); and 13
‘‘(3) the Action Strategy.’’; 14
(2) in subsection (c)— 15
(A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘ocean 16
and Great Lakes science and management pro-17
grams and centers’’ and inserting ‘‘programs 18
and centers relating to the science and manage-19
ment of marine, estuarine, and freshwater sys-20
tems’’; and 21
(B) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘while 22
recognizing each agency is acting under its own 23
independent mission and authority’’ before the 24
semicolon; 25
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(3) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘Except as 1
provided in subsection (h), the’’ and inserting 2
‘‘The’’; 3
(4) in subsection (e)— 4
(A) by striking paragraph (2) and insert-5
ing the following: 6
‘‘(2) examine the causes, ecological con-7
sequences, and costs of harmful algal blooms and 8
hypoxia;’’; 9
(B) in paragraph (3)— 10
(i) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 11
‘‘, including the annual Gulf of Mexico hy-12
poxia zone mapping cruise’’ after ‘‘Pro-13
gram’’; 14
(ii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 15
‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; and 16
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-17
lowing: 18
‘‘(E) to identify opportunities to improve 19
monitoring of harmful algal blooms and hy-20
poxia, with a particular focus on waters that 21
may affect fisheries, public health, or subsist-22
ence harvest; 23
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‘‘(F) to evaluate adaptation and mitigation 1
strategies to address the impacts of harmful 2
algal blooms and hypoxia; 3
‘‘(G) to support the resilience of the sea-4
food industry to harmful algal blooms and to 5
expand access to testing for harmful algal 6
bloom toxins, including for subsistence and rec-7
reational harvesters, through innovative meth-8
ods that increase the efficiency and effective-9
ness of such testing in rural and remote areas; 10
‘‘(H) to support sustained observations to 11
provide State and local entities, Indian tribes, 12
and other entities access to real-time or near 13
real-time observations data for decision making 14
to protect human and ecological health and 15
local economies; and 16
‘‘(I) to assess the combined effects of 17
harmful algal blooms, hypoxia, and stressors 18
such as runoff and infrastructure changes on 19
marine, freshwater, or estuarine ecosystems and 20
living resources;’’; 21
(C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘agen-22
cies’’ and inserting ‘‘entities, regional coastal 23
observing systems (as defined in section 12303 24
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of the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observa-1
tion System Act of 2009 (33 U.S.C. 3602)),’’; 2
(D) in paragraph (6), by inserting ‘‘and 3
communities’’ after ‘‘ecosystems’’; 4
(E) in paragraph (8), by inserting ‘‘and 5
Indian tribes’’ after ‘‘managers’’; 6
(F) in paragraph (9)(A), by striking ‘‘, 7
tribal, and local stakeholders’’ and inserting 8
‘‘and local stakeholders and Indian tribes, Trib-9
al organizations, and Native Hawaiian organi-10
zations’’; 11
(G) by redesignating paragraphs (3), (4), 12
(5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), and (11) as para-13
graphs (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (12), 14
and (13), respectively; 15
(H) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 16
following: 17
‘‘(3) consult with entities that are most depend-18
ent on coastal and water resources that may be im-19
pacted by marine and freshwater harmful algal 20
blooms and hypoxia, including— 21
‘‘(A) State and local entities; 22
‘‘(B) Indian tribes, Tribal organizations, 23
and Native Hawaiians organizations; 24
‘‘(C) island communities; 25
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‘‘(D) low-population rural communities; 1
‘‘(E) subsistence communities; and 2
‘‘(F) fisheries and recreation industries;’’; 3
and 4
(I) by inserting after paragraph (10), as 5
redesignated by subparagraph (G), the fol-6
lowing: 7
‘‘(11) expand access to testing for harmful algal 8
bloom toxins, including for subsistence and rec-9
reational harvesters, through innovative methods 10
that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of such 11
testing in rural and remote areas;’’; 12
(5) by amending subsections (f) to read as fol-13
lows: 14
‘‘(f) C
OOPERATION; DUPLICATION OFEFFORT.—The 15
Under Secretary shall work cooperatively with and avoid 16
duplication of effort of other agencies on the Task Force 17
and States, Indian tribes, Tribal organizations, Native 18
Hawaiian organizations, and nongovernmental organiza-19
tions concerned with marine and freshwater issues.’’; and 20
(6) by striking subsection (g), (h), and (i). 21
(c) N
ATIONALOCEANIC ANDATMOSPHERICADMIN-22
ISTRATIONACTIVITIES.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 603B of the Harm-24
ful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control 25
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Act of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 4003) is amended to read 1
as follows: 2
‘‘SEC. 603B. NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC AD-3
MINISTRATION ACTIVITIES. 4
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall— 5
‘‘(1) carry out response activities for marine, 6
coastal, and Great Lakes harmful algal bloom and 7
hypoxia events; 8
‘‘(2) develop and enhance operational harmful 9
algal bloom observing and forecasting programs, in-10
cluding operational observations and forecasting, 11
monitoring, modeling, data management, and infor-12
mation dissemination; 13
‘‘(3) develop forecast modeling that includes the 14
effect of hurricanes and other weather events on the 15
resuspension of bioavailable nutrients in sediments 16
and related interactions with harmful algal blooms; 17
‘‘(4) enhance communication and coordination 18
among Federal agencies carrying out activities and 19
research relating to marine and freshwater harmful 20
algal blooms and hypoxia; 21
‘‘(5) leverage existing resources and expertise 22
available from local research universities and institu-23
tions; and 24
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‘‘(6) use cost effective methods in carrying out 1
this section. 2
‘‘(b) I
NTEGRATEDCOASTAL ANDOCEANOBSERVA-3
TIONSYSTEM.—The collection of monitoring and observ-4
ing data under this section shall comply with all data 5
standards and protocols developed pursuant to the Inte-6
grated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 7
2009 (33 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.). Such data shall be made 8
available through the National Integrated Coastal and 9
Ocean Observation System established under section 10
12304 of that Act (33 U.S.C. 3603).’’. 11
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-12
tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 13
Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383; 112 Stat. 3412; 14
136 Stat. 1268) is amended by striking the item re-15
lating to section 603B and inserting the following: 16
‘‘Sec. 603B. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration activities.’’.
(d) ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONAGENCYACTIVI-17
TIES.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Harmful Algal Bloom 19
and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 is 20
amended by inserting after section 603B (33 U.S.C. 21
4003) the following: 22
‘‘SEC. 603C. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY AC-23
TIVITIES. 24
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator shall— 25
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‘‘(1) carry out research on the ecology and 1
human health impacts of freshwater harmful algal 2
blooms and hypoxia events; 3
‘‘(2) develop and enhance operational fresh-4
water harmful algal bloom monitoring, observing, 5
and forecasting programs in lakes, rivers, and res-6
ervoirs, and coordinate with the National Oceanic 7
and Atmospheric Administration on such programs 8
in the Great Lakes and estuaries (including tribu-9
taries thereof), including operational observations 10
and forecasting, monitoring, modeling, data manage-11
ment, and information dissemination, to support 12
event response, prioritization, prevention, adapta-13
tion, and mitigation activities; 14
‘‘(3) enhance communication and coordination 15
among Federal agencies carrying out freshwater 16
harmful algal bloom and hypoxia activities and re-17
search; 18
‘‘(4) to the greatest extent practicable, leverage 19
existing resources and expertise available from Fed-20
eral and State partners and local research univer-21
sities and institutions; and 22
‘‘(5) use cost-effective methods in carrying out 23
this section. 24
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‘‘(b) NONDUPLICATION.—The Administrator shall 1
ensure that activities carried out under subsection (a) 2
focus on new approaches to addressing freshwater harmful 3
algal blooms and are not duplicative of existing research 4
and development programs authorized by this title or any 5
other law.’’. 6
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-7
tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 8
Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383; 112 Stat. 3412; 9
136 Stat. 1268) is amended by inserting after the 10
item relating to section 603B the following: 11
‘‘Sec. 603C. Environmental Protection Agency activities.’’.
(e) NATIONALHARMFULALGALBLOOMOBSERVING 12
N
ETWORK.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 606 of the Harmful 14
Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act 15
of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 4005) is amended to read as fol-16
lows: 17
‘‘SEC. 606. NATIONAL HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM OBSERVING 18
NETWORK. 19
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary, acting 20
through the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science 21
and the Integrated Ocean Observing System of the Na-22
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shall in-23
tegrate Federal, State, regional, and local observing capa-24
bilities to establish a national network of observing sys-25
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tems for the monitoring, detection, and forecasting of 1
harmful algal blooms by leveraging the capacity of re-2
gional associations of the Integrated Ocean Observing Sys-3
tem, including through the incorporation of emerging tech-4
nologies and new data integration methods. 5
‘‘(b) C
OORDINATION AND DATAASSEMBLY.—In car-6
rying out subsection (a), the Program Office of the Inte-7
grated Ocean Observing System shall— 8
‘‘(1) coordinate with the National Centers for 9
Coastal Ocean Science regarding observations, data 10
integration, and information dissemination; 11
‘‘(2) organize, integrate, disseminate, and pro-12
vide a central architecture to support ecological fore-13
casting of harmful algal blooms; and 14
‘‘(3) coordinate with the Water Quality Portal 15
to store and serve discrete data related to the moni-16
toring of freshwater, estuarine, and coastal harmful 17
algal blooms.’’. 18
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-19
tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 20
Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383; 112 Stat. 3412; 21
136 Stat. 1268) is amended by striking the item re-22
lating to section 606 and inserting the following: 23
‘‘Sec. 606. National harmful algal bloom observing network.’’.
(f) NATIONAL-LEVELINCUBATORPROGRAM.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Harmful Algal Bloom 1
and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 is 2
amended by inserting after section 606 (33 U.S.C. 3
4005) the following: 4
‘‘SEC. 606A. NATIONAL-LEVEL INCUBATOR PROGRAM. 5
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabo-6
ration with the Administrator and research universities 7
and institutions, shall establish a national-level incubator 8
program (in this section referred to as the ‘program’) to 9
increase the number of strategies, technologies, and meas-10
ures available to prevent, mitigate, and control harmful 11
algal blooms. 12
‘‘(b) F
RAMEWORK.—The program shall establish a 13
framework for preliminary assessments of novel strategies, 14
technologies, and measures to prevent, mitigate, and con-15
trol harmful algal blooms in order to determine the poten-16
tial effectiveness and scalability of such technologies. 17
‘‘(c) F
UNDING.—The program shall provide merit- 18
based funding, using amounts otherwise available to the 19
Under Secretary for the award of grants, for strategies, 20
technologies, and measures that eliminate or reduce, 21
through biological, chemical, or physical means, the levels 22
of harmful algae and associated toxins resulting from 23
harmful algal blooms. 24
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‘‘(d) DATABASE.—The program shall include a data-1
base for cataloging the licensing and permitting require-2
ments, economic costs, feasibility, effectiveness, and 3
scalability of novel and established strategies, tech-4
nologies, and measures to prevent, mitigate, and control 5
harmful algal blooms. 6
‘‘(e) P
RIORITIZATION.—In carrying out the program, 7
the Under Secretary shall prioritize proposed strategies, 8
technologies, and measures that would, to the maximum 9
extent practicable— 10
‘‘(1) protect key habitats for fish and wildlife; 11
‘‘(2) maintain biodiversity; 12
‘‘(3) protect public health; 13
‘‘(4) protect coastal resources of national, his-14
torical, and cultural significance; or 15
‘‘(5) benefit low-income communities, Indian 16
tribes, and rural communities.’’. 17
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-18
tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 19
Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383; 112 Stat. 3412; 20
136 Stat. 1268) is amended by inserting after the 21
item relating to section 606 the following: 22
‘‘Sec. 606A. National-level incubator program.’’.
(g) DEFINITIONS.—Section 609 of the Harmful Algal 23
Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 24
(33 U.S.C. 4008) is amended— 25
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(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘means the 1
comprehensive research plan and action strategy es-2
tablished under section 603B’’ and inserting ‘‘means 3
the action strategy for harmful algal blooms in the 4
United States most recently submitted under section 5
603(c)’’; 6
(2) by amending paragraph (3) to read as fol-7
lows: 8
‘‘(3) H
ARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM .—The term 9
‘harmful algal bloom’ means a high concentration of 10
marine or freshwater algae (including diatoms), 11
macroalgae (including Sargassum), or cyanobacteria 12
resulting in nuisance conditions or harmful impacts 13
on marine and freshwater ecosystems, subsistence 14
resources, communities, or human health through 15
the production of toxic compounds or other biologi-16
cal, chemical, or physical impacts of the bloom.’’; 17
(3) by striking paragraph (9); 18
(4) by redesignating paragraphs (4), (5), (6), 19
(7), and (8) as paragraphs (5), (8), (9), (11), and 20
(13), respectively; 21
(5) by inserting after paragraph (3) the fol-22
lowing: 23
‘‘(4) H
ARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM AND HYPOXIA 24
EVENT.—The term ‘harmful algal bloom and hy-25
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poxia event’ means the occurrence of a harmful algal 1
bloom or hypoxia as a result of a natural, anthropo-2
genic, or undetermined cause.’’; 3
(6) in paragraph (5), as redesignated by para-4
graph (4)— 5
(A) by striking ‘‘aquatic’’ and inserting 6
‘‘marine or freshwater’’; and 7
(B) by striking ‘‘resident’’ and inserting 8
‘‘marine or freshwater’’; 9
(7) by inserting after paragraph (5), as redesig-10
nated by paragraph (4), the following: 11
‘‘(6) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘Indian tribe’ 12
has the meaning given that term in section 4 of the 13
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 14
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 15
‘‘(7) N
ATIVE HAWAIIAN ORGANIZATION .—The 16
term ‘Native Hawaiian organization’ has the mean-17
ing given that term in section 6207 of the Elemen-18
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 19
U.S.C. 7517) and includes the Department of Ha-20
waiian Home Lands and the Office of Hawaiian Af-21
fairs.’’; 22
(8) by inserting after paragraph (9), as redesig-23
nated by paragraph (4), the following: 24
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‘‘(10) SUBSISTENCE USE.—The term ‘subsist-1
ence use’ means the customary and traditional use 2
of fish, wildlife, or other freshwater, coastal, or ma-3
rine resources by any individual or community to 4
meet personal or family needs, including essential 5
economic, nutritional, or cultural applications.’’; and 6
(9) by inserting after paragraph (11), as redes-7
ignated by paragraph (4), the following: 8
‘‘(12) T
RIBAL ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘Trib-9
al organization’ has the meaning given that term in 10
section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-11
cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).’’. 12
(h) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 13
610 of the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research 14
and Control Act of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 4009) is amended— 15
(1) by amending subsection (a) to read as fol-16
lows: 17
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro-18
priated to carry out this title, for each of fiscal years 2026 19
through 2030— 20
‘‘(1) $19,500,000 to the Under Secretary; and 21
‘‘(2) $8,000,000 to the Administrator.’’; and 22
(2) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(c) T
RANSFERAUTHORITY.—As specifically pro-24
vided in advance in appropriations Acts, the Under Sec-25
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retary or the Administrator may transfer funds made 1
available to carry out this title to the head of any Federal 2
department or agency, with the concurrence of such head, 3
to carry out, as appropriate, relevant provisions of this 4
title and section 9(g) of the National Integrated Drought 5
Information System Reauthorization Act of 2018 (33 6
U.S.C. 4010).’’. 7
SEC. 3. OTHER HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM AND HYPOXIA 8
MATTERS. 9
Section 9(g) of the National Integrated Drought In-10
formation System Reauthorization Act of 2018 (33 U.S.C. 11
4010) is amended— 12
(1) in paragraph (1)— 13
(A) in subparagraph (B), by adding at the 14
end the following new sentence: ‘‘The appro-15
priate Federal official may waive the non-Fed-16
eral share requirements of the preceding sen-17
tence if such official determines no reasonable 18
means are available through which the recipient 19
of the Federal share can meet the non-Federal 20
share requirement.’’; and 21
(B) by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(D) C
ONTRACT, COOPERATIVE AGREE -23
MENT, AND GRANT AUTHORITY .—The appro-24
priate Federal official may enter into contracts, 25
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cooperative agreements, and grants with States, 1
Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, Native Ha-2
waiian organizations, local governments, or 3
other entities to pay for or reimburse costs in-4
curred by such entities for the purposes of sup-5
porting the determination of, and assessing the 6
environmental, economic, subsistence use, and 7
public health effects of, an event of national 8
significance.’’; 9
(2) in paragraph (2)— 10
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘a 11
leadership official of an affected Indian Tribe, 12
the executive official of the District of Colum-13
bia, or the executive official of an affected terri-14
tory or possession of the United States,’’ after 15
‘‘State,’’; and 16
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘con-17
sider’’ and all that follows through ‘‘boundary.’’ 18
and inserting ‘‘consider factors such as— 19
‘‘(i) the risk to public health and the 20
potential severity of the detrimental envi-21
ronmental effects of the hypoxia or harm-22
ful algal bloom event, as indicated by— 23
‘‘(I) data on shellfish or water 24
quality obtained through sampling 25
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programs, including baseline data, 1
and regulatory or advisory thresholds 2
established to explain management ac-3
tions related to the event; 4
‘‘(II) toxin levels in fish, marine 5
mammals, seabirds, shellfish, or water 6
during the event; 7
‘‘(III) toxic aerosols produced 8
during the event, including potential 9
human exposures to toxic aerosols; 10
‘‘(IV) reports of human or ani-11
mal illnesses or mortalities during the 12
event; 13
‘‘(V) any closures of fishing or 14
shellfish harvesting locations or rec-15
reational public waters, including 16
beaches, during the event; 17
‘‘(VI) the duration and spatial 18
extent of the event; or 19
‘‘(VII) impacts to habitats or 20
ecosystems associated with the event; 21
‘‘(ii) the potential economic, food safe-22
ty and security, and subsistence impacts 23
associated with the hypoxia or harmful 24
algal bloom event, including to fisheries 25
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and aquaculture, recreation and tourism, 1
monitoring and management, resource use, 2
and event response activities, assessed in 3
comparison with historical data from when 4
a State or region did not experience such 5
an event, as possible, as indicated by— 6
‘‘(I) increases in public health ex-7
penditures; 8
‘‘(II) losses to commercial fish-9
eries and aquaculture industries, 10
recreation and tourism, real estate, 11
and other impacted industries or busi-12
nesses; 13
‘‘(III) increases in monitoring 14
and management expenditures, includ-15
ing costs incurred for event response 16
and clean-up (such as for beach clean- 17
up following an influx of biomass or a 18
fish-kill) by public or private sectors; 19
or 20
‘‘(IV) impacts to subsistence re-21
sources, including nutritional, re-22
source use, and economic effects on 23
subsistence communities; 24
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‘‘(iii) the relative magnitude of those 1
impacts in relation to past occurrences of 2
hypoxia or harmful algal bloom events that 3
occur on a recurrent or annual basis; and 4
‘‘(iv) the geographic scope of the hy-5
poxia or harmful algal bloom event, includ-6
ing the potential of the event to affect sev-7
eral municipalities, to affect more than 1 8
State, or to cross an international bound-9
ary.’’; 10
(3) in paragraph (3), by adding at the end the 11
following: 12
‘‘(D) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘Indian 13
Tribe’ has the meaning given that term in sec-14
tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and 15
Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 16
‘‘(E) N
ATIVE HAWAIIAN ORGANIZATION .— 17
The term ‘Native Hawaiian organization’ has 18
the meaning given that term in section 6207 of 19
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 20
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7517) and includes the De-21
partment of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Of-22
fice of Hawaiian Affairs. 23
‘‘(F) S
UBSISTENCE USE.—The term ‘sub-24
sistence use’ means the customary and tradi-25
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tional use of fish, wildlife, or other freshwater, 1
coastal, or marine resources by any individual 2
or community to meet personal or family needs, 3
including essential economic, nutritional, or cul-4
tural applications. 5
‘‘(G) T
RIBAL ORGANIZATION .—The term 6
‘Tribal organization’ has the meaning given 7
that term in section 4 of the Indian Self-Deter-8
mination and Education Assistance Act (25 9
U.S.C. 5304).’’; and 10
(4) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(4) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 12
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 13
this subsection $2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 14
2026 through 2030, to remain available until ex-15
pended.’’. 16
Æ
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