16 U.S.C. § 669c — Allocation and apportionment of available amounts

(a) Administrative set-aside. (1) For fiscal year 2001 and later, the Interior Secretary may use no more than the available amount from that year’s fund revenue, excluding interest under 16 U.S.C. § 669b(b), for direct administrative expenses under this chapter and § 669h. For the fiscal year containing November 15, 2021, the available amount is $12,786,434 multiplied by the change from the preceding year in the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. For each later year, it is the prior amount plus the prior amount multiplied by that CPI change. (2) Each amount remains available through the end of the next fiscal year. Within 60 days after a fiscal year ends, the Secretary must apportion among States any amount still unobligated, using the same basis and method used for other chapter money in the year it was first available. (b) State apportionment. After deducting the subsection (a) amount, the subsection (c) amount, amounts under § 669g–1, and grants under §§ 669h–1 and 669h–2, the Secretary apportions the remainder half according to each State’s area and half according to its number of paid hunting-license holders in the second preceding fiscal year. Apportionments must be adjusted so no State receives less than one-half of 1 percent or more than 5 percent. “Fiscal year” means October 1 through September 30; the license-holder count uses the State fiscal or license year. (c) Pistols, revolvers, bows, and arrows. (1) Subject to (2), half of yearly revenue from taxes on these items beginning in fiscal year 1975 is apportioned by State population. (2) Each State’s amount must be at least 1 percent and no more than 3 percent of that revenue; Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands each receive one-sixth of 1 percent. (3) Population uses the latest available decennial census certified by the Commerce Secretary. (4) These amounts may also fund hunter and recreational-shooter recruitment. (d) Wildlife account. (1) The Secretary gives the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico each up to one-half of 1 percent, and Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands each up to one-fourth of 1 percent. (2) The Secretary then apportions the remainder among States: one-third by land-area ratio and two-thirds by population ratio. Each State’s amount is adjusted to at least 1 percent and no more than 5 percent. (3) Up to 3 percent of transferred account money may pay Federal administration and execution expenses. (e) Programs. (1) A State, through its fish and wildlife department, may seek approval of a conservation and restoration program or account money to develop one. It must submit a comprehensive plan giving the State department overall responsibility; providing for wildlife-conservation projects, wildlife-related recreation, and conservation education; and ensuring public participation. Within five years after the first apportionment, it must develop and begin a strategy based on the best appropriate science and data. The strategy must address species distribution and abundance, including appropriate low or declining populations; habitat extent and condition; harmful problems and priority research; conservation actions and priorities; monitoring and adaptation; review and possible revision at least every 10 years; and feasible coordination with Federal, State, and local agencies and Indian tribes managing significant land or water or affecting conservation. (2) The State must allow public participation in the comprehensive plan. (3) If the Secretary finds compliance, the Secretary must approve the program and set aside up to 75 percent of estimated development and implementation cost from the State’s subsection (d) apportionment. (4) After approval, the Secretary may make progress payments up to the United States’ proportional share or advance that share under regulations. No more than 10 percent of the State’s amounts under this section for the program may fund wildlife-related recreation. (5) “State” includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.