Sponsors (8)
The bill strengthens Chesapeake Bay restoration, monitoring, education, and public-facing forecasting—improving science-based management and community benefits—while expanding federal program authority and likely spending and altering governance/staffing powers in ways that could complicate coordination, slow hiring, and concentrate discretionary funding choices.
Residents, commercial and recreational fishers, nonprofits, and state/local resource managers get expanded restoration programs and grant support for oysters, submerged aquatic vegetation, aquaculture, habitat resilience, and monitoring, increasing on-the-ground conservation and recovery efforts in the Chesapeake Bay.
State and local resource managers receive improved data, monitoring products, and scientific analysis from the Office to inform policymaking and management of the Bay.
Students and teachers gain expanded Chesapeake Bay education programs and internships that build watershed literacy and create clearer career pathways in ocean/coastal science and restoration.
Taxpayers may face higher federal spending if the expanded program authorities and grant programs require new appropriations or increased funding.
State and local partners and federal operations could face coordination challenges because shifting certain duties to the Chesapeake Executive Council and removing some interagency roles may reduce direct federal operational control.
The Office's ability to hire and structure its staff could be constrained by removing the Director's appointment authority for some positions, potentially slowing staffing or limiting the Director's ability to assemble a team tailored to Bay priorities.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Revises NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office leadership duties and program authorities, adds climate, education, and integrated assessment roles, and creates a new program activities authority.
Revises and renames duties and program authorities for NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office, expresses a nonbinding view that NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office should be NOAA’s primary representative in the watershed, and provides new program activity authority while removing some prior personnel and coordination provisions. The changes narrow certain language, make the Director explicitly responsible for Office administration and implementation, shift some interagency coordination toward the Chesapeake Executive Council, add program focus areas (including coastal hazards/climate change, education, and integrated ecosystem assessments), and create a new “Program Activities” subsection authorizing activities to support those programs.
Official title: To reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 18, 2025 by Robert C. Scott · Last progress December 18, 2025