Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Amendments Act of 2008
Latest action · Jun 25, 2008 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (text of measure as introduced: CR S6163-6165)
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJun 25, 2008
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Amendments Act of 2008 - Amends the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 to: (1) require the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to establish criteria for determining which states should serve on the Inter-Agency Task Force on Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia and to implement a nominations process to select representatives for such Task Force; and (2) require the Task Force's scientific assessments of hypoxia and harmful algal blooms (hypoxia) once (currently, every five years).
Requires: (1) the President, acting through the Task Force, to establish a national program to integrate efforts to address hypoxia research, monitoring, prediction, control, mitigation, prevention, and outreach; (2) the Task Force to be the oversight body for the development and implementation of the National Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Program; and (3) NOAA to be the lead federal agency for implementing and administering such Program. Sets forth the Program's responsibilities and duties, including: (1) promoting a national strategy to help communities understand, detect, predict, control, and mitigate freshwater and marine hypoxia events; (2) maintaining and enhancing the Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms Program, the Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms Program, the Northern Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems and Hypoxia Assessment Program, and the Coastal Hypoxia Research Program; and (3) establishing a Mitigation and Control of Harmful Algal Bloom Program.
Requires the national hypoxia program to: (1) oversee the development and implementation of Regional Research and Action Plans and identify regions and sub-regions to be addressed by each Plan; and (2) convene regional panels of experts. Requires each panel to develop a Plan that identifies appropriate elements for the region, including: (1) priorities for ecological and socioeconomic research on issues related to, and impacts of, hypoxia; and (2) state and local government actions that may be implemented to monitor, minimize, reduce, and address hypoxia.
Requires the Task Force to report to specified congressional committees not less than every five years on hypoxia.
Requires: (1) the Secretary, acting through NOAA, to establish a collaborative pilot program with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies to examine hypoxia occurring in freshwater systems; and (2) such program to be located in the Mississippi River Basin watershed.
Cosponsors 10
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jun 25, 2008 to Jul 9, 2008, with 9 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-MD | Barbara A. Mikulski | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| D-CA | Barbara Boxer | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| D-MD | Benjamin L. Cardin | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| D-FL | Bill Nelson | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| D-MI | Carl Levin | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| R-LA | David Vitter | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| R-OH | George V. Voinovich | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| D-MA | John F. Kerry | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| D-WA | Maria Cantwell | Original | Jun 25, 2008 |
| D-LA | Mary L. Landrieu | Jul 9, 2008 |
Actions 3
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jun 25, 2008Introduced in Senate
- Jun 25, 2008Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (text of measure as introduced: CR S6163-6165)
- Jun 25, 2008Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S6162-6163)
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Environmental Protection.
- Algal blooms
- Authorization
- Climate change and greenhouse gases
- Coastal zone
- Congress
- Congressional reporting requirements
- Ecological research
- Economics and Public Finance
- Environmental assessment
- Environmental monitoring
- Environmental Protection
- Environmental research
- Federal aid to water pollution control
- Federal-state relations
- Government Operations and Politics
- Great Lakes
- Gulf of Mexico
- Marine and coastal resources, fisheries
- Marine ecology
- Mississippi River
- Oceanography
- Oxygen
- Science, Technology, Communications
- Water pollution control
- Water Resources Development
- Watersheds
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.