SECTION 1. Short Title.
This Act may be cited as the “Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary of National Significance Act of 2024”.
Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary of National Significance Act of 2024
An Act
To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to give priority consideration to selecting Pensacola and Perdido Bays as an estuary of national significance, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SEC. 2. Pensacola and Perdido Bays.
Section 320(a)(2)(B) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1330(a)(2)(B)) is amended by striking “ and Lower Columbia River, Oregon and Washington” and inserting “ Lower Columbia River, Oregon and Washington; and Pensacola and Perdido Bays, Florida”.
SEC. 3. Ineligibility with Respect to Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025.
With respect to the amendment made by section 2, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency may not use for the implementation of that amendment, including, with respect to Pensacola and Perdido Bays, Florida, convening a management conference, developing or carrying out a comprehensive conservation and management plan, or providing grants under section 320 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1330)—
any amounts appropriated to carry out the national estuary program under that section for fiscal year 2024; or
unless the total amount appropriated to carry out that program for fiscal year 2025 is at least $850,000 more than the total amount appropriated to carry out that program for fiscal year 2023, any amounts appropriated to carry out that program for fiscal year 2025.