th st congress session s. 2372

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II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2372 To amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to make supple- mental funds available for management of fish and wildlife species of greatest conservation need as determined by State fish and wildlife agen- cies, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 15, 2021 Mr. HEINRICH (for himself and Mr. BLUNT) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works A BILL To amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to make supplemental funds available for management of fish and wildlife species of greatest conservation need as determined by State fish and wildlife agencies, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Recovering America’s 4 Wildlife Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:20 Jul 16, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2372.IS S2372 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS

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Page 1: TH ST CONGRESS SESSION S. 2372

II

117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2372

To amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to make supple-

mental funds available for management of fish and wildlife species of

greatest conservation need as determined by State fish and wildlife agen-

cies, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 15, 2021

Mr. HEINRICH (for himself and Mr. BLUNT) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and

Public Works

A BILL To amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act

to make supplemental funds available for management

of fish and wildlife species of greatest conservation need

as determined by State fish and wildlife agencies, and

for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Recovering America’s 4

Wildlife Act of 2021’’. 5

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TITLE I—WILDLIFE CONSERVA-1

TION AND RESTORATION 2

SEC. 101. WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION 3

SUBACCOUNT. 4

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3 of the Pittman-Robert-5

son Wildlife Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 669b) is amended 6

in subsection (c)— 7

(1) by redesignating paragraphs (2) and (3) as 8

paragraphs (9) and (10); and 9

(2) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the 10

following: 11

‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT OF SUBACCOUNT.— 12

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—There is established in 13

the fund a subaccount to be known as the 14

‘Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Sub-15

account’ (referred to in this section as the ‘Sub-16

account’). 17

‘‘(B) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts in the Sub-18

account shall be available without further ap-19

propriation, for each fiscal year, for apportion-20

ment in accordance with this Act. 21

‘‘(C) DEPOSITS INTO SUBACCOUNT.— 22

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Beginning in fis-23

cal year 2022, and for each fiscal year 24

thereafter, the Secretary of the Treasury 25

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shall transfer $1,300,000,000 from the 1

general fund of the Treasury to the Sub-2

account. 3

‘‘(ii) FUNDING SOURCE.— 4

‘‘(I) DEFINITION.—In this 5

clause, the term ‘remaining natural 6

resource or environmental-related vio-7

lation revenue’ means the amount of 8

all civil or criminal penalties, fines, 9

sanctions, forfeitures, or other reve-10

nues resulting from natural resource 11

or environmental-related violations or 12

enforcement actions by any Federal 13

agency that are not directed to be de-14

posited in a fund other than the gen-15

eral fund of the Treasury or have oth-16

erwise been appropriated. 17

‘‘(II) USE OF REVENUE.—Begin-18

ning in fiscal year 2022, and for each 19

fiscal year thereafter, the total 20

amount of the remaining natural re-21

source or environmental-related viola-22

tion revenue with respect to the pre-23

vious fiscal year— 24

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‘‘(aa) shall be deposited in 1

the general fund of the Treasury; 2

and 3

‘‘(bb) shall be available for 4

the purposes of the transfer 5

under clause (i). 6

‘‘(2) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—Amounts 7

transferred to the Subaccount shall supplement, but 8

not replace, existing funds available to the States 9

from— 10

‘‘(A) the funds distributed pursuant to the 11

Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act 12

(16 U.S.C. 777 et seq.); and 13

‘‘(B) the fund. 14

‘‘(3) INNOVATION GRANTS.— 15

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 16

distribute 10 percent of funds apportioned from 17

the Subaccount through a competitive grant 18

program to State fish and wildlife departments, 19

the District of Columbia fish and wildlife de-20

partment, fish and wildlife departments of terri-21

tories, or to regional associations of fish and 22

wildlife departments (or any group composed of 23

more than 1 such entity). 24

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‘‘(B) PURPOSE.—Such grants shall be pro-1

vided for the purpose of catalyzing innovation 2

of techniques, tools, strategies, or collaborative 3

partnerships that accelerate, expand, or rep-4

licate effective and measurable recovery efforts 5

for species of greatest conservation need and 6

species listed under the Endangered Species Act 7

of 1973 (15 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and the habi-8

tats of such species. 9

‘‘(C) REVIEW COMMITTEE.—The Secretary 10

shall appoint a review committee comprised 11

of— 12

‘‘(i) a State Director from each re-13

gional association of State fish and wildlife 14

departments; 15

‘‘(ii) the head of a department respon-16

sible for fish and wildlife management in a 17

territory; and 18

‘‘(iii) four individuals representing 19

four different nonprofit organizations each 20

of which is actively participating in car-21

rying out wildlife conservation restoration 22

activities using funds apportioned from the 23

Subaccount. 24

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‘‘(D) SUPPORT FROM UNITED STATES FISH 1

AND WILDLIFE SERVICE.—The United States 2

Fish and Wildlife Service shall provide any per-3

sonnel or administrative support services nec-4

essary for such Committee to carry out its re-5

sponsibilities under this Act. 6

‘‘(E) EVALUATION.—Such committee shall 7

evaluate each proposal submitted under this 8

paragraph and recommend projects for funding, 9

giving preference to solutions that accelerate 10

the recovery of species identified as priorities 11

through regional scientific assessments of spe-12

cies of greatest conservation need. 13

‘‘(4) USE OF FUNDS.—Funds apportioned from 14

the Subaccount— 15

‘‘(A) shall be used to implement the Wild-16

life Conservation Strategy of a State, territory, 17

or the District of Columbia, as required under 18

section 4(d), by carrying out, revising, or en-19

hancing existing wildlife and habitat conserva-20

tion and restoration programs and developing 21

and implementing new wildlife conservation and 22

restoration programs to recover and manage 23

species of greatest conservation need and the 24

key habitats and plant community types essen-25

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tial to the conservation of those species as de-1

termined by the appropriate State fish and 2

wildlife department; 3

‘‘(B) shall be used to develop, revise, and 4

enhance the Wildlife Conservation Strategy of a 5

State, territory, or the District of Columbia, as 6

may be required by this Act; 7

‘‘(C) shall be used to assist in the recovery 8

of species found in the State, territory, or the 9

District of Columbia that are listed as endan-10

gered species, threatened species, candidate spe-11

cies or species proposed for listing, or species 12

petitioned for listing under the Endangered 13

Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) 14

or under State law; 15

‘‘(D) may be used for wildlife conservation 16

education and wildlife-associated recreation 17

projects, especially in historically underserved 18

communities; 19

‘‘(E) may be used to manage a species of 20

greatest conservation need whose range is 21

shared with another State, territory, Indian 22

Tribe, or foreign government and for the con-23

servation of the habitat of such species; 24

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‘‘(F) may be used to manage, control, and 1

prevent invasive species, disease, and other 2

risks to species of greatest conservation need; 3

and 4

‘‘(G) may be used for law enforcement ac-5

tivities that are directly related to the protec-6

tion and conservation of a species of greatest 7

conservation need and the habitat of such spe-8

cies. 9

‘‘(5) MINIMUM REQUIRED SPENDING FOR EN-10

DANGERED SPECIES RECOVERY.—Not less than an 11

average of 15 percent over a 5-year period of 12

amounts apportioned to a State, territory, or the 13

District of Columbia from the Subaccount shall be 14

used for purposes described in paragraph (4)(C). 15

The Secretary may reduce the minimum requirement 16

of a State, territory, or the District of Columbia on 17

an annual basis if the Secretary determines that the 18

State, territory, or the District of Columbia is meet-19

ing the conservation and recovery needs of all spe-20

cies described in paragraph (4)(C). 21

‘‘(6) PUBLIC ACCESS TO PRIVATE LANDS NOT 22

REQUIRED.—Funds apportioned from the Sub-23

account shall not be conditioned upon the provision 24

of public access to private lands, waters, or holdings. 25

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‘‘(7) REQUIREMENTS FOR MATCHING FUNDS.— 1

‘‘(A) For the purposes of the non-Federal 2

fund matching requirement for a wildlife con-3

servation or restoration program or project 4

funded by the Subaccount, a State, territory, or 5

the District of Columbia may use as matching 6

non-Federal funds— 7

‘‘(i) funds from Federal agencies 8

other than the Department of the Interior 9

and the Department of Agriculture; 10

‘‘(ii) donated private lands and 11

waters, including privately owned ease-12

ments; 13

‘‘(iii) in circumstances described in 14

subparagraph (B), revenue generated 15

through the sale of State hunting and fish-16

ing licenses; and 17

‘‘(iv) other sources consistent with 18

part 80 of title 50, Code of Federal Regu-19

lations, in effect on the date of enactment 20

of the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act of 21

2021. 22

‘‘(B) Revenue described in subparagraph 23

(A)(iii) may only be used to fulfill the require-24

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ments of such non-Federal fund matching re-1

quirement if— 2

‘‘(i) no Federal funds apportioned to 3

the State fish and wildlife department of 4

such State from the Wildlife Restoration 5

Program or the Sport Fish Restoration 6

Program have been reverted because of a 7

failure to fulfill such non-Federal fund 8

matching requirement by such State dur-9

ing the previous 2 years; and 10

‘‘(ii) the project or program being 11

funded benefits the habitat of a hunted or 12

fished species and a species of greatest 13

conservation need. 14

‘‘(8) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection, the fol-15

lowing definitions apply: 16

‘‘(A) PARTNERSHIPS.—The term ‘partner-17

ships’ may include collaborative efforts with 18

Federal agencies, State agencies, local agencies, 19

Indian Tribes, nonprofit organizations, aca-20

demic institutions, industry groups, and private 21

individuals to implement a State’s Wildlife Con-22

servation Strategy. 23

‘‘(B) SPECIES OF GREATEST CONSERVA-24

TION NEED.—The term ‘species of greatest con-25

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servation need’ may be fauna or flora, and may 1

include terrestrial, aquatic, marine, and inverte-2

brate species that are of low population, declin-3

ing, rare, or facing threats and in need of con-4

servation attention, as determined by each 5

State fish and wildlife department, with respect 6

to funds apportioned to such State. 7

‘‘(C) TERRITORY AND TERRITORIES.—The 8

terms ‘territory’ and ‘territories’ mean the 9

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, Amer-10

ican Samoa, the Commonwealth of the North-11

ern Mariana Islands, and the United States 12

Virgin Islands. 13

‘‘(D) WILDLIFE.—The term ‘wildlife’ 14

means any species of wild, freeranging fauna, 15

including fish, and also fauna in captive breed-16

ing programs the object of which is to reintro-17

duce individuals of a depleted indigenous spe-18

cies into previously occupied range.’’. 19

(b) ALLOCATION AND APPORTIONMENT OF AVAIL-20

ABLE AMOUNTS.—Section 4 of the Pittman-Robertson 21

Wildlife Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 669c) is amended— 22

(1) in subsection (d)— 23

(A) in paragraph (1)— 24

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(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 1

‘‘to the District of Columbia and to the 2

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, each’’ and 3

inserting ‘‘To the District of Columbia’’; 4

(ii) in subparagraph (B)— 5

(I) by striking ‘‘to Guam’’ and 6

inserting ‘‘To Guam’’; and 7

(II) by striking ‘‘not more than 8

one-fourth of one percent’’ and insert-9

ing ‘‘not less than one-third of one 10

percent’’; and 11

(iii) by adding at the end the fol-12

lowing: 13

‘‘(C) To the Commonwealth of Puerto 14

Rico, a sum equal to not less than 1 percent 15

thereof.’’; 16

(B) in paragraph (2)(A)— 17

(i) by amending clause (i) to read as 18

follows: 19

‘‘(i) one-half of which is based on the ratio 20

to which the land and water area of such State 21

bears to the total land and water area of all 22

such States;’’; 23

(ii) in clause (ii)— 24

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(I) by striking ‘‘two-thirds’’ and 1

inserting ‘‘one-quarter’’; and 2

(II) by striking the period and 3

inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 4

(iii) by adding at the end the fol-5

lowing: 6

‘‘(iii) one-quarter of which is based upon 7

the ratio to which the number of species listed 8

as endangered or threatened under the Endan-9

gered Species Act of 1973 (15 U.S.C. 1531 et 10

seq.) in such State bears to the total number of 11

such species listed in all such States.’’; 12

(C) by amending paragraph (2)(B) to read 13

as follows: 14

‘‘(B) The amounts apportioned under this 15

paragraph shall be adjusted equitably so that 16

no such State, unless otherwise designated, 17

shall be apportioned a sum which is less than 18

1 percent or more than 5 percent of the amount 19

available for apportionment under— 20

‘‘(i) subparagraph (A)(i); 21

‘‘(ii) subparagraph (A)(ii); and 22

‘‘(iii) the overall amount available for 23

subparagraph (A).’’; and 24

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(D) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘3 per-1

cent’’ and inserting ‘‘1.85 percent’’; 2

(2) in subsection (e)(4), as redesignated— 3

(A) by amending subparagraph (B) to read 4

as follows: 5

‘‘(B) Not more than an average of 15 percent 6

over a 5-year period of amounts apportioned to each 7

State, territory, or the District of Columbia under 8

this section for a wildlife conservation and restora-9

tion program may be used for wildlife conservation 10

education and wildlife-associated recreation.’’; and 11

(B) by inserting after subparagraph (B), 12

as so amended, the following: 13

‘‘(C) $55 million shall be reserved for 14

States and territories that include plants among 15

their species of greatest conservation need and 16

in the conservation planning and habitat 17

prioritization efforts of their Wildlife Conserva-18

tion Strategy. Each eligible State, territory, or 19

the District of Columbia shall receive an addi-20

tional 5 percent of their apportioned amount. 21

Any unallocated resources shall be allocated 22

proportionally among all States and territories 23

under the formulas of this section.’’; and 24

(3) by adding at the end following: 25

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‘‘(f) MINIMIZATION OF PLANNING AND REPORT-1

ING.—Nothing in this Act shall be interpreted to require 2

a State to create a comprehensive strategy related to con-3

servation education or outdoor recreation. 4

‘‘(g) ACCOUNTABILITY.—Not more than one year 5

after the date of enactment of the Recovering America’s 6

Wildlife Act of 2021 and every 3 years thereafter, each 7

State fish and wildlife department shall submit a 3-year 8

work plan and budget for implementing its Wildlife Con-9

servation Strategy and a report describing the results de-10

rived from activities accomplished under subsection (c)(4) 11

during the previous 3 years to— 12

‘‘(1) the Committee on Environment and Public 13

Works of the Senate; 14

‘‘(2) the Committee on Natural Resources of 15

the House of Representatives; and 16

‘‘(3) the United States Fish and Wildlife Serv-17

ice.’’. 18

SEC. 102. TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS. 19

(a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 2 of the Pittman-Robert-20

son Wildlife Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 669a) is amend-21

ed— 22

(1) in paragraph (7), by striking ‘‘including 23

fish,’’; 24

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(2) by redesignating paragraphs (6) through 1

(9) as paragraphs (5) through (8), respectively; and 2

(3) in paragraph (6), as redesignated by para-3

graph (2), by inserting ‘‘Indian Tribes, academic in-4

stitutions,’’ before ‘‘wildlife conservation organiza-5

tions’’. 6

(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—The Pittman-Rob-7

ertson Wildlife Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 669a et seq.) 8

is amended— 9

(1) in section 3— 10

(A) in subsection (a)— 11

(i) by striking ‘‘(1) An amount equal 12

to’’ and inserting ‘‘An amount equal to’’; 13

and 14

(ii) by striking paragraph (2); 15

(B) in subsection (c)— 16

(i) in paragraph (9), as redesignated 17

by section 101(a)(1), by striking ‘‘or an 18

Indian tribe’’; and 19

(ii) in paragraph (10), as redesignated 20

by section 101(a)(1), by striking ‘‘Wildlife 21

Conservation and Restoration Account’’ 22

and inserting ‘‘Subaccount’’; and 23

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(C) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘Wildlife 1

Conservation and Restoration Account’’ and in-2

serting ‘‘Subaccount’’; 3

(2) in section 4 (16 U.S.C. 669c)— 4

(A) in subsection (d), as redesignated— 5

(i) in the heading, by striking ‘‘AC-6

COUNT’’ and inserting ‘‘SUBACCOUNT’’; 7

and 8

(ii) by striking ‘‘Account’’ each place 9

it appears and inserting ‘‘Subaccount’’; 10

and 11

(B) in subsection (e)(1), as redesignated, 12

by striking ‘‘Account’’ and inserting ‘‘Sub-13

account’’; and 14

(3) in section 8 (16 U.S.C. 669g), in subsection 15

(a), by striking ‘‘Account’’ and inserting ‘‘Sub-16

account’’. 17

SEC. 103. SAVINGS CLAUSE. 18

The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act (16 19

U.S.C. 669 et seq.) is amended— 20

(1) by redesignating section 13 as section 15; 21

and 22

(2) by inserting after section 12 the following: 23

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‘‘SEC. 13. SAVINGS CLAUSE. 1

‘‘Nothing in this Act shall be construed to enlarge 2

or diminish the authority, jurisdiction, or responsibility of 3

a State to manage, control, or regulate fish and wildlife 4

under the law and regulations of the State on lands and 5

waters within the State, including on Federal lands and 6

waters. 7

‘‘SEC. 14. STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION WITH RESPECT TO 8

ALASKA. 9

‘‘If any conflict arises between any provision of this 10

Act and any provision of the Alaska National Interest 11

Lands Conservation Act (Public Law 46–487, 16 U.S.C. 12

3101 et seq.), then the provision in the Alaska National 13

Interest Lands Conservation Act shall prevail.’’. 14

TITLE II—TRIBAL WILDLIFE 15

CONSERVATION AND RES-16

TORATION 17

SEC. 201. INDIAN TRIBES. 18

(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 19

(1) ACCOUNT.—The term ‘‘Account’’ means the 20

Tribal Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Ac-21

count established by subsection (b)(1). 22

(2) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 23

has the meaning given such term in section 4 of the 24

Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 25

Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 26

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(3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 1

the Secretary of the Interior. 2

(4) TRIBAL SPECIES OF GREATEST CONSERVA-3

TION NEED.—The term ‘‘Tribal species of greatest 4

conservation need’’ means any species identified by 5

an Indian Tribe as requiring conservation manage-6

ment because of declining population, habitat loss, 7

or other threats, or because of their biological or cul-8

tural importance to such Tribe. 9

(5) WILDLIFE.—The term ‘‘wildlife’’ means— 10

(A) any species of wild flora or fauna in-11

cluding fish and marine mammals; 12

(B) flora or fauna in a captive breeding, 13

rehabilitation, and holding or quarantine pro-14

gram, the object of which is to reintroduce indi-15

viduals of a depleted indigenous species into 16

previously occupied range or to maintain a spe-17

cies for conservation purposes; and 18

(C) does not include game farm animals. 19

(b) TRIBAL WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND RES-20

TORATION ACCOUNT.— 21

(1) IN GENERAL.—There is established in the 22

Treasury an account to be known as the ‘‘Tribal 23

Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Account’’. 24

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•S 2372 IS

(2) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts in the Account 1

shall be available for each fiscal year without further 2

appropriation for apportionment in accordance with 3

this title. 4

(3) DEPOSITS INTO ACCOUNT.— 5

(A) IN GENERAL.—Beginning in fiscal year 6

2022, and for each fiscal year thereafter, the 7

Secretary of the Treasury shall transfer 8

$97,500,000 from the general fund of the 9

Treasury to the Account. 10

(B) FUNDING SOURCE.— 11

(i) DEFINITION.—In this subpara-12

graph, the term ‘‘remaining natural re-13

source or environmental-related violation 14

revenue’’ means the amount of all civil or 15

criminal penalties, fines, sanctions, forfeit-16

ures, or other revenues resulting from nat-17

ural resource or environmental-related vio-18

lations or enforcement actions by any Fed-19

eral agency that are not directed to be de-20

posited in a fund other than the general 21

fund of the Treasury or have otherwise 22

been appropriated. 23

(ii) USE OF REVENUE.—Beginning in 24

fiscal year 2022, and for each fiscal year 25

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Page 21: TH ST CONGRESS SESSION S. 2372

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•S 2372 IS

thereafter, the total amount of the remain-1

ing natural resource or environmental-re-2

lated violation revenue with respect to the 3

previous fiscal year— 4

(I) shall be deposited in the gen-5

eral fund of the Treasury; and 6

(II) shall be available for the 7

purposes of the transfer under sub-8

paragraph (A). 9

(c) DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS TO INDIAN TRIBES.— 10

Each fiscal year, the Secretary of the Treasury shall de-11

posit funds into the Account and distribute such funds 12

through a noncompetitive application process according to 13

guidelines and criteria, and reporting requirements deter-14

mined by the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the 15

Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in consultation 16

with Indian Tribes. Such funds shall remain available 17

until expended. 18

(d) WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES.— 19

The distribution guidelines and criteria described in sub-20

section (c) shall be based, in part, upon Indian Tribes’ 21

wildlife management responsibilities. 22

(e) USE OF FUNDS.— 23

(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-24

graph (2), the Secretary may distribute funds from 25

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•S 2372 IS

the Account to an Indian Tribe for any of the fol-1

lowing purposes: 2

(A) To develop, carry out, revise, or en-3

hance wildlife conservation and restoration pro-4

grams to manage Tribal species of greatest con-5

servation need and the habitats of such species 6

as determined by the Indian Tribe. 7

(B) To assist in the recovery of species 8

listed as an endangered or threatened species 9

under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 10

U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). 11

(C) For wildlife conservation education and 12

wildlife-associated recreation projects. 13

(D) To manage a Tribal species of greatest 14

conservation need and the habitat of such spe-15

cies, the range of which may be shared with a 16

foreign country, State, or other Indian Tribe. 17

(E) To manage, control, and prevent 18

invasive species as well as diseases and other 19

risks to wildlife. 20

(F) For law enforcement activities that are 21

directly related to the protection and conserva-22

tion of wildlife. 23

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(G) To develop, revise, and implement 1

comprehensive wildlife conservation strategies 2

and plans for such Tribe. 3

(H) For the hiring and training of wildlife 4

conservation and restoration program staff. 5

(2) CONDITIONS ON THE USE OF FUNDS.— 6

(A) REQUIRED USE OF FUNDS.—In order 7

to be eligible to receive funds under subsection 8

(c), a Tribe’s application must include a pro-9

posal to use funds for at least one of the pur-10

poses described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) 11

of paragraph (1). 12

(B) IMPERILED SPECIES RECOVERY.—In 13

distributing funds under this section, the Sec-14

retary shall distribute not less than 15 percent 15

of the total funds distributed to proposals to 16

fund the recovery of a species, subspecies, or 17

distinct population segment listed as a threat-18

ened species, endangered species, or candidate 19

species under the Endangered Species Act of 20

1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) or Tribal law. 21

(C) LIMITATION.—In distributing funds 22

under this section, the Secretary shall distribute 23

not more than 15 percent of all funds distrib-24

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•S 2372 IS

uted under this section for the purpose de-1

scribed in paragraph (1)(C). 2

(f) NO MATCHING FUNDS REQUIRED.—No Indian 3

Tribe shall be required to provide matching funds to be 4

eligible to receive funds under this Act. 5

(g) PUBLIC ACCESS NOT REQUIRED.—Funds appor-6

tioned from the Tribal Wildlife Conservation and Restora-7

tion Account shall not be conditioned upon the provision 8

of public or non-Tribal access to Tribal or private lands, 9

waters, or holdings. 10

(h) ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Of the funds depos-11

ited under subsection (b)(3) for each fiscal year, not more 12

than 3 percent shall be used by the Secretary for adminis-13

trative costs. 14

(i) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this Act shall be 15

construed as modifying or abrogating a treaty with any 16

Indian Tribe, or as enlarging or diminishing the authority, 17

jurisdiction, or responsibility of an Indian Tribe to man-18

age, control, or regulate wildlife. 19

Æ

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