As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on February 6, 2014
S. 1080 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 2015-2019 period.
This legislation would authorize the appropriation of $40 million annually over the 2015-2018 period for EPA to implement the Long Island Sound comprehensive conservation and management plan. S. 1080 also would authorize the appropriation of $25 million annually over that same period for EPA to provide grants to state 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 through 2018 the authority to appropriate funding 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. 1080 because it would not affect direct spending or revenues.
S. 1080 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
