951 



65 



four years beginning in fiscal year 1977 is made available. This is 

 the same level as is currently authorized under the Act as amended. 



(a) (7) For the new subsection of the Estuarine Sanctuaries and 

 Beach Access provision of H.R. 3981, $25 million is authorized under 

 subsection 315(b) for use in acquiring access to public beaches and 

 other publicly-held areas of interest in the coastal zones. This money 

 is to be available for four years beginning in fiscal year 1977. 



(b) This subsection increased the amount available for the adminis- 

 tration of the program from $3 million annually to $5 million. In view 

 of the greatly increased responsibilities which H.R. 3981 adds to the 

 coastal zone program, this increase seems entirely justified and perhaps 

 modest. Rather than authorize a larger amount at this time, however, 

 the Committee desires to see how the Office of Coastal Zone Manage- 

 ment responds to the new challenges given it through H.R. 3981. Expe- 

 rience with operation of the expanded program may suggest that a 

 larger sum be provided for administrative purposes. If officials at 

 XOAA can make this case successfully to the Committee, there will be 

 no hesitation on its part to amend the Act to provide additional oper- 

 ating funds. 



(c) This subsection carries that standard prohibition on the uses of 

 funds received under this Act to pay a state's matching share of an 

 authorized program or project. 



Limitations section 



(22) Section 318 ("Limitations") is included in the bill to ensure 

 that federal agencies will not utilize the approval systems for the 

 awarding of grants or bond guarantees to force a state to permit the 

 siting of a specific facility in the coastal zone. The Coastal Zone Man- 

 agement Act is a process- oriented rather than substantive program. 

 Federal agencies are not to judge the quality of decisions made by 

 states on the substantive aspects of specific projects if such decisions 

 are made within the guidelines and procedures of the Coastal Zone 

 Management program. 



It is the intent of the Committee that this section does not in any way 

 affect section 306(c) (8) nor does it affect other federal agencies with 

 programmatic authorities for land and water use responsibilities in the 

 coastal zone. This section means that nothing in the Coastal Zone 

 Management Act of 1972 gives the Secretary of Commerce or other 

 federal agencies any additional powers to intercede in state land or 

 water use programs. Such authorities under other existing and future 

 statutes, however, are in no way abrogated by this section. 



State and local bond guarantees 



Section 319(a) of this section would authorize the Secretary of Com- 

 merce to make commitments to guarantee and to guarantee bonds or 

 other evidences of indebtedness which are issued by a coastal state or 

 unit of general purpose local government thereof. A bond could be 

 guaranteed only if it is issued for the purpose of providing public 

 services and public facilities which are made necessary by outer Conti- 

 nental Shelf energy activities. It should l>e noted that "public services 

 and public facilities" and "Outer Continental Shelf energy activities" 

 are defined terms in section 2, subparagraph (4) of this Act, and such 

 terms would have application to this section. Reference should be made 

 to the explanation of these terms within this section-by-section analysis. 



65-319 O - 76 - 61 



