United States Code
USC most recently checked for updates: Feb 16, 2025
The term “emergency assistance” does not include financial assistance to respond to an unusual mortality event.
The term “Secretary” has the meaning given that term in section 1362(12)(A) of this title.
The term “stranding region” means a geographic region designated by the applicable Secretary for purposes of administration of this subchapter.
The applicable Secretary shall carry out a grant program, to be known as the “John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program” (referred to in this section as the “grant program”), to award grants to eligible stranding network participants or stranding network collaborators, as described in this subsection.
The applicable Secretary may enter into a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement with any eligible stranding network participant or stranding network collaborator, as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, for the purposes described in paragraph (2).
The Secretary shall ensure, to the extent practicable, that funds awarded under the grant program are distributed equitably among the stranding regions.
For the purposes of this program, priority is to be given to applications focusing on marine mammal strandings.
The Secretary shall, in consultation with the Marine Mammal Commission, a representative from each of the stranding regions, and other individuals who represent public and private organizations that are actively involved in rescue, rehabilitation, release, scientific research, marine conservation, and forensic science with respect to stranded marine mammals under that Department’s jurisdiction, develop criteria for awarding grants under their respective grant programs.
No grant made under the grant program for a single award may exceed $150,000 in any 12-month period.
The Secretary shall make publicly available a list of grant proposals for the upcoming fiscal year, funded grants, and requests for grant flexibility under this subsection.
There is established in the Treasury of the United States an interest-bearing fund, to be known as the “Joseph R. Geraci Marine Mammal Rescue and Rapid Response Fund” (referred to in this section as the “Rapid Response Fund”).
Amounts in the Rapid Response Fund shall be available only for use by the Secretary to provide emergency assistance.
Funds to carry out the activities under this section shall be derived from amounts authorized to be appropriated pursuant to subparagraph (A) that are enacted after
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Rapid Response Fund $500,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2028.
For the purposes of carrying out this section, the Secretary may solicit, accept, receive, hold, administer, and use gifts, devises, and bequests without any further approval or administrative action.
A monetary gift, devise, or bequest accepted by the Secretary under paragraph (1) shall be credited as discretionary offsetting collections to the currently applicable appropriation, account, or fund of the Department of Commerce and shall be made available for such purposes only to the extent and in the amounts provided in advance in appropriations Acts.
The non-Federal share of a project conducted with funds awarded under the grant program under this section shall be not less than 25 percent of such project.
The Secretary may apply to the non-Federal share of a project conducted with a grant under this section the amount of funds, and the fair market value of property and services, provided by non-Federal sources and used for the project.