16 U.S.C. § 742f — Powers of Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce

(a) Policies and recommendations. With advice and help from the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife as needed, the Interior Secretary must decide the policies and procedures needed to carry out fish-and-wildlife laws efficiently and in the public interest. The Secretary must: (1) develop and recommend measures for maximum sustainable fish and fishery-product production and to prevent unnecessary, excessive fluctuations; (2) study the industry’s economic condition and, when a domestic fishery segment is seriously disturbed by resource fluctuations, unstable markets or fishing conditions, or other factors, recommend measures to the President and Congress to stabilize it; (3) when there is an expected or actual surplus of fishery products, develop and recommend special promotional and informational activities to increase consumption; and (4) take needed steps to develop, advance, manage, conserve, and protect fish and wildlife resources, including research, improving existing facilities, and buying or exchanging land, water, or interests in them. (b) Gifts. (1) The Interior Secretary may accept gifts, devises, bequests, property proceeds, or interests in property for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s activities and services. The Secretary may accept them subject to restrictive or affirmative covenants or conditions of servitude if lawful and compatible with the purpose. (2)(A) Money gifts and bequests and sale proceeds from gifted or bequeathed property go into a separate Treasury account and may be spent on Service programs when the Secretary orders it. (B)(i) A gift for a particular national wildlife refuge or geographically related refuge complex may be spent only for that refuge or complex, without another appropriation. (ii) Subject to available appropriations, the Refuge System Administration Act, and other law, the Secretary may match such gifts. Federal money may not exceed the gift’s amount, or its fair market value for property or in-kind services. (3) For federal income, estate, and gift taxes, accepted property, proceeds, and interests count as a gift or bequest to the United States. (c) Volunteers. (1) Each Secretary may recruit, train, and accept unpaid volunteers for programs run through the Fish and Wildlife Service or NOAA, without regard to title 5. (2) Each may pay incidental expenses such as transportation, uniforms, lodging, awards and recognition, and subsistence, regardless of residence. (3) Except as this subsection says otherwise, a volunteer is not a Federal employee and is not subject to federal-employment laws on work hours, pay rates, leave, unemployment compensation, or benefits. (4) For title 28 tort claims, a volunteer is a Federal employee. (5) For title 5, chapter 81, subchapter I, work-injury compensation, volunteers are United States employees and that subchapter applies. (6) The Interior Secretary may create a Senior Volunteer Corps for volunteers over 50 and provide its members extra incidental expenses to recruit and retain them. The other rules here apply to Corps members. (d) Community partnerships. (1) A “partner organization” means an organization whose members come from private people, organizations, corporations, academic institutions, or State or local governments; that promotes understanding, education, and conservation of a particular refuge’s or geographically related refuges’ fish, wildlife, plants, and cultural and historical resources; and that is a tax-exempt section 501(c)(3) organization. This section does not define “partner organization” beyond these requirements. (2)(A) Despite title 31, chapter 63, the Interior Secretary may make cooperative agreements with such an organization, an academic institution, a State or local agency, or another person for refuge projects or programs, consistent with this subsection and other authorities, regulations, and guidance. (B) Subject to the Refuge System Administration Act, other law, and the Secretary’s terms, projects may: (i) maintain, restore, improve, monitor, or research habitat; (ii) build, operate, maintain, or improve refuge facilities and services; (iii) create and distribute educational materials about the refuge and Refuge System; (iv) use the refuge as an outdoor classroom and create other education programs; or (v) provide refuge money through donated net sales revenue and encouraged gifts, devises, and bequests, with net revenue used only for the refuge. (C)(i) Subject to appropriations and applicable law, the Secretary may match donated non-Federal money, up to the amount donated for each project. (ii) Federal money may pay only direct project expenses, not a non-Federal entity’s operation or administration. (iii) New or permanently improved refuge facilities belong to the United States. (D) Project money received goes into a separate Treasury account. Money attributable to a particular refuge or complex may be used without further appropriation for volunteer-activity incidental expenses and cooperative agreements for that refuge or complex. (e) Refuge education. (1) Within one year after October 5, 1998, the Interior Secretary must issue guidance advancing the Refuge System mission and individual refuge purposes by: (A) giving students outdoor classroom opportunities that combine curricula with personal experiences involving fish, wildlife, plants, habitat, and refuge cultural and historical resources; (B) promoting understanding and conservation of those resources; and (C) improving scientific literacy through formal and nonformal education. (2) Based on that guidance, the Secretary may create or improve refuge education programs according to each refuge’s resources and opportunities in State, local, and private schools. The Secretary should work with State and local education authorities and may work with partner organizations under subsection (d). (f) Report. Within one year after January 4, 2011, and every five years afterward, the Interior Secretary must report to the House Natural Resources Committee and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The report must evaluate the volunteer, community-partnership, refuge-education, National Volunteer Coordination, and volunteer-coordination-strategy programs, and recommend ways to improve them, including implementation of subsection (e)(1)(A)–(C). (g) Appropriations. Congress may appropriate $2,000,000 to the Interior Secretary for each fiscal year 2023 through 2027 to carry out subsections (b) through (f).