550 



the Coastal Zone Management Act is to implement established national 

 policy to preserve, protect, develop, and where possible, to restore and 

 enhance the resources of the Nation's coastal zone, and to encourage 

 and assist the coastal States in exercising their responsibilities through 

 the development and implementation of management programs in 

 their coastal areas. The basic act provides for three types of grants. 

 First, there are program development grants, authorized on an an- 

 nual basis, with the respective States required to provide matching 

 funds of at least one-third of the program development costs. Second, 

 there are the administrative grants. To be made on the same matching 

 basis, as States complete the development of their programs and sub- 

 mit them to the Secretary of Commerce for approval. Finally, there 

 are the grants to States for one-half of the cost of acquiring and oper- 

 ating estuarine sanctuaries which will serve as natural field laborato- 

 ries to gather data and study natural processes in the coastal zone in 

 order to acquire information important to management decisions. 



As to the development grants and the administrative grants, the 

 Coastal Zone Management Act provides that no State in any 1 year 

 may receive more than 10 percent of the funds appropriated for the 

 respective grants. It also guarantees that no State grant will be less 

 than 1 percent of such appropriated funds. The obvious purpose of 

 these two limitations was to put some constraints on the administrator 

 of the Act to insure all coastal States were treated fairly and 

 equitably. 



Although the basic act became effective in October 1972, delays in 

 the administration resulted in the first funding of the act in Decem- 

 ber 1973, more than a year later, when $7.2 million was appropriated 

 for development grants, $1.8 million less than the authorization. The 

 States have accepted the program enthusiastically and no better dem- 

 onstration of that enthusiasm can be given than the fact that collec- 

 tively they were prepared to support the program with their own 

 appropriations. In fact, the eagerness of the States to get on with this 

 badly needed program development resulted in grant applications 

 which demonstrated needs which were 40 percent in excess of the 

 available funding. The initial grants to three States had to be delayed 

 into the present fiscal year because funding was not available in fiscal 

 year 1974, and other grants had to be reduced to fit into the available 

 funds. In recognition of this fact, the administration sought appro- 

 priations of $9 million in fiscal year 1974, and an appropriation at 

 that level was made, reaching the full authorization under the act. 



H.R, 16215 proposes to increase the authorization for fiscal years 

 1975, 1976, and 1977 from $9 million to $12 million to recognize the 

 unmet needs and to encourage the States to move forward in their 

 program development. While the administration at first opposed this 

 increased authorization because of current fiscal constraints, the Presi- 

 dent, last month, announced that the additional $3 million funding 

 was urgently needed and that he would seek a supplemental appro- 

 priation for that funding. This change of position came about pri- 

 marily because of administration plans to speed up offshore oil devel- 

 opment and recognizes the fact that such a speedup program will have 

 a major impact on many of the coastal States, if they are to play their 

 proper role in preparing for national shoreside development decisions. 



