16 U.S.C. § 1421f: Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program and Rapid Response Fund

causes an immediate increase in the cost of a response, recovery, or rehabilitation that is greater than the usual cost of a response, recovery, or rehabilitation; is cyclical or endemic; or involves a marine mammal that is out of the normal range for that marine mammal; or the applicable Secretary considers to be an emergency; or with the concurrence of the applicable Secretary, a State, territorial, or Tribal Government considers to be an emergency. The term “emergency assistance” does not include financial assistance to respond to an unusual mortality event. The term “Secretary” has the meaning given that term in section 1362(12)(A) of this title . The term “stranding region” means a geographic region designated by the applicable Secretary for purposes of administration of this subchapter. The applicable Secretary shall carry out a grant program, to be known as the “John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program” (referred to in this section as the “grant program”), to award grants to eligible stranding network participants or stranding network collaborators, as described in this subsection. the recovery, care, or treatment of sick, injured, or entangled marine mammals; responses to marine mammal stranding events that require emergency assistance; the collection of data and samples from living or dead stranded marine mammals for scientific research or assessments regarding marine mammal health; facility operating costs that are directly related to activities described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C); and development of stranding network capacity, including training for emergency response, where facilities do not exist or are sparse. The applicable Secretary may enter into a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement with any eligible stranding network participant or stranding network collaborator, as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, for the purposes described in paragraph (2). amend any contract, grant, or cooperative agreement entered into under this paragraph, including provisions concerning the period of performance; or waive the requirements under subsection (f) for grant applications submitted during the provision of emergency assistance. The Secretary shall ensure, to the extent practicable, that funds awarded under the grant program are distributed equitably among the stranding regions. equitable distribution within the stranding regions, including the subregions (including, but not limited to, the Gulf of Mexico); any episodic stranding, entanglement, or mortality events, except for unusual mortality events, that occurred in any stranding region in the preceding year; any data with respect to average annual stranding, entanglements, and mortality events per stranding region; the size of the marine mammal populations inhabiting a stranding region; the importance of the region’s marine mammal populations to the well-being of indigenous communities; and the conservation of protected, depleted, threatened, or endangered marine mammal species. For the purposes of this program, priority is to be given to applications focusing on marine mammal strandings. submit an application in such form and manner as the applicable Secretary prescribes; and be in compliance with the data reporting requirements under section 1421a(d) of this title and any applicable reporting requirements of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for species under its management jurisdiction. The Secretary shall, in consultation with the Marine Mammal Commission, a representative from each of the stranding regions, and other individuals who represent public and private organizations that are actively involved in rescue, rehabilitation, release, scientific research, marine conservation, and forensic science with respect to stranded marine mammals under that Department’s jurisdiction, develop criteria for awarding grants under their respective grant programs. No grant made under the grant program for a single award may exceed $150,000 in any 12-month period. 6 percent of the amounts made available each fiscal year to carry out the grant program; or $80,000. The Secretary shall make publicly available a list of grant proposals for the upcoming fiscal year, funded grants, and requests for grant flexibility under this subsection. There is established in the Treasury of the United States an interest-bearing fund, to be known as the “Joseph R. Geraci Marine Mammal Rescue and Rapid Response Fund” (referred to in this section as the “Rapid Response Fund”). Amounts in the Rapid Response Fund shall be available only for use by the Secretary to provide emergency assistance. $6,000,000 shall be made available to the Secretary of Commerce; and $1,000,000 shall be made available to the Secretary of the Interior. Funds to carry out the activities under this section shall be derived from amounts authorized to be appropriated pursuant to subparagraph (A) that are enacted after December 23, 2022 . There is authorized to be appropriated to the Rapid Response Fund $500,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2028. For the purposes of carrying out this section, the Secretary may solicit, accept, receive, hold, administer, and use gifts, devises, and bequests without any further approval or administrative action. A monetary gift, devise, or bequest accepted by the Secretary under paragraph (1) shall be credited as discretionary offsetting collections to the currently applicable appropriation, account, or fund of the Department of Commerce and shall be made available for such purposes only to the extent and in the amounts provided in advance in appropriations Acts. The non-Federal share of a project conducted with funds awarded under the grant program under this section shall be not less than 25 percent of such project. The Secretary may apply to the non-Federal share of a project conducted with a grant under this section the amount of funds, and the fair market value of property and services, provided by non-Federal sources and used for the project.