Description:
As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on June 21, 2012
S. 2018 would require the Long Island Sound office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the impact of climate change on the Long Island Sound watershed and develop strategies to increase public education about that area. Assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts, CBO estimates that implementing this legislation would cost $254 million over the 2013-2017 period.
This legislation would authorize the appropriation of $40 million annually over the 2013-2016 period for EPA to implement the Long Island Sound comprehensive conservation and management plan. S. 2018 also would authorize the appropriation of $25 million annually over that same period for EPA to provide grants to states and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and private landowners to procure and enhance sites within the Long Island Sound ecosystem, and to cover administrative costs. (Such grants are referred to in the bill as Long Island Sound Stewardship grants.)
In addition, this legislation would extend the authority to appropriate funding through 2016 for EPA to operate the Office of the Management Conference of the Long Island Sound Study.
Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to S. 2018 because it would not affect direct spending or revenues.
S. 2018 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
