16 U.S.C. § 1421f–1 — Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program and Rapid Response Fund

(a) Definitions. (1)(A) "Emergency assistance" means financial assistance for responding to or resulting from a stranding or entanglement that (i) immediately raises response, recovery, or rehabilitation costs above the usual cost; (ii) is cyclical or endemic; or (iii) involves a marine mammal outside its normal range. It also means financial assistance for a stranding or entanglement that (I) the applicable Secretary considers an emergency or (II), with that Secretary's agreement, a State, territorial, or Tribal Government considers an emergency. (B) It does not include assistance for an unusual mortality event. (2) "Secretary" has the meaning in section 1362(12)(A). (3) "Stranding region" means a geographic region designated by the applicable Secretary to administer this subchapter. (b) John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program. (1) The applicable Secretary must operate this grant program for eligible participants or collaborators. (2) Its purposes are (A) recovery, care, or treatment of sick, injured, or entangled marine mammals; (B) emergency-assistance responses; (C) collecting data and samples from living or dead stranded mammals for research or health assessment; (D) facility operating costs directly related to (A)-(C); and (E) building network capacity, including emergency-response training where facilities are absent or sparse. (3)(A) The Secretary may use a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement with an eligible participant or collaborator for those purposes. (B) After a request and analysis of its need and merits, the Secretary may amend such an instrument, including its performance period, or waive subsection (f)'s application requirements during emergency assistance. (4)(A) As far as practicable, funds must be distributed equitably among regions. (B) Priorities may consider equitable subregional distribution, including the Gulf of Mexico; episodic events in the prior year other than unusual mortality events; average annual regional events; regional population size; importance to indigenous communities; and conservation of protected, depleted, threatened, or endangered species. (C) Applications focused on strandings receive priority. (5) A participant must apply in the Secretary's required form and manner and comply with section 1421a(d) and applicable Fish and Wildlife Service reporting rules. (6) In consultation with the Marine Mammal Commission, one representative from each region, and other public or private rescue, rehabilitation, release, research, conservation, and forensic-science organizations under the Department's jurisdiction, the Secretary must develop grant criteria. (7) A single award may not exceed $150,000 in any 12-month period. (8) Administrative costs may not exceed the greater of 6 percent of annual program funds or $80,000. (9) The Secretary must publicly list upcoming proposals, funded grants, and flexibility requests. (c) Joseph R. Geraci Marine Mammal Rescue and Rapid Response Fund. (1) The Treasury has an interest-bearing fund with that name. (2) It may be used only by the Secretary to provide emergency assistance. (d) Authorization of appropriations. (1)(A) Congress may appropriate $7 million for each fiscal year 2023 through 2028 for the grant program, available until spent. Each year, $6 million is for the Commerce Secretary and $1 million for the Interior Secretary. (B) The funds must come from amounts authorized by (A) enacted after December 23, 2022. (2) Congress may appropriate $500,000 for each of those fiscal years to the Rapid Response Fund. (e) Acceptance of donations. (1) To carry out this section, the Secretary may request, accept, receive, hold, administer, and use gifts, devises, and bequests without further approval or administrative action. (2) A monetary donation is credited as a discretionary offsetting collection to the currently applicable Commerce Department appropriation, account, or fund and is available only to the extent and amounts provided in advance by appropriations Acts. (f) Matching requirement. (1) The nonfederal share of a grant-funded project must be at least 25 percent. (2) The Secretary may count nonfederal funds and the fair market value of nonfederal property and services used for the project toward that share.