[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 14, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Page 13607]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-04937]
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GULF COAST ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION COUNCIL
Notice of Proposed Subaward Under a Council-Selected Restoration
Component Award
AGENCY: Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (Council)
publishes notice of a proposed subaward from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
(NOAA) to the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA), a nonprofit organization,
for the purpose of supporting the Council Monitoring and Assessment
Program (CMAP). The Council and NOAA have entered an interagency
agreement for NOAA to carry out CMAP, as approved in the Council's
Initial Funded Priorities List.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please send questions by email to
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 1321(t)(2)(E)(ii)(III) of the
RESTORE Act (33 U.S.C. 1321(t) and note) and Treasury's implementing
regulation at 31 CFR 34.401(b) require that, for purposes of awards
made under the Council-Selected Restoration Component, a State or
Federal award recipient may make a grant or subaward to or enter into a
cooperative agreement with a nongovernmental entity that equals or
exceeds 10 percent of the total amount of the award provided to the
State or Federal award recipient only if certain notice requirements
are met. Specifically, at least 30 days before the State or Federal
award recipient enters into such an agreement, the Council must publish
in the Federal Register and deliver to specified Congressional
Committees the name of the recipient and subrecipient; a brief
description of the activity, including its purpose; and the amount of
the award. This notice accomplishes the Federal Register publication
requirement.
Description of Proposed Action
As specified in the Initial Funded Priorities List, which is
available on the Council's Web site at https://www.restorethegulf.gov/council-selected-restoration-component/funded-priorities-list, RESTORE
Act funds will support the Council Monitoring and Assessment Program
(CMAP). Administered jointly by NOAA and the Department of the
Interior's United States Geological Survey (USGS), CMAP will build the
foundational components for Gulf region-wide monitoring in order to
measure impacts of investments in restoration. Through collaboration
with the Gulf States, federal and local partners, academia, non-
governmental/non-profit organizations, and industry, the program will
use a Monitoring Community of Practice coordinated by the Gulf of
Mexico Alliance to leverage existing resources, capacities, and
expertise and build on existing monitoring programs. These existing
programs will be coordinated into a network, to provide efficiency in
monitoring and collaborative cross-program review of performance with
other Gulf ecosystem recovery efforts.
The program will: (1) Create an inventory of the existing
monitoring programs, data, protocols and standards; (2) determine the
minimum monitoring elements needed to evaluate the performance of
restoration projects; (3) evaluate monitoring program suitability; (4)
combine data from the suitable existing programs into searchable
databases for Council use; (5) examine the inventory to determine what
data are missing (i.e. identify information gaps) that would be
required for the RESTORE Council; (6) document existing baseline
assessments of habitat and water quality conditions; and (7) provide
recommendations to the Council to supplement and refine the existing
monitoring programs to fill-in the information gaps where possible.
Will D. Spoon,
Program Analyst, Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council.
[FR Doc. 2017-04937 Filed 3-13-17; 8:45 am]
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