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Committee backs bill to create science-based coastal restoration plan and technical advisory board
Summary
Senate Bill 2264 would establish a technical advisory board and a science-based strategic plan to coordinate RESTORE Act, GOMESA, tidelands and other coastal restoration funds; the committee voted to report the bill out after sponsors described board composition and reporting duties.
Senate Bill 2264, presented in the Ports and Marine Resources committee, would require a strategic, science-based plan to guide coastal conservation and restoration spending and create a technical advisory board to develop and report on that plan.
Sponsor Senator Thompson told the committee that multiple funding streams — including RESTORE Act funds administered by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEEQ), GOMESA receipts administered by the Department of Marine Resources (DMR), tidelands revenue and other federal one-off grants — currently lack a single coordinating plan. "We want a strategic plan to help address coastal conservation, restoration, water quality, habitat loss, and other issues in the Mississippi Sound and our surrounding waterways," the sponsor said.
The bill would create a technical advisory board with a governor-appointed chair and voting agency and academic members (DEEQ, DMR, the University of Southern Mississippi's coastal research programs and Mississippi State's coastal campus), a governor-appointed NGO representative, and nonvoting legislative members. The board would compile annual reports describing areas of concern, monitoring activities and potential project priorities; sponsors emphasized the board would provide guidance only and would not strip executive branch authorities for fund administration.
Senators discussed approximate annual funding amounts mentioned in the presentation — the sponsor cited roughly $30 million a year in RESTORE-related buckets administered by DEEQ, about $25 million in GOMESA-related funds administered by DMR, and roughly $11–12 million in tidelands receipts — and members said the plan would help applicants and agencies align projects. The sponsor compared the proposed effort to strategic plans adopted in other Gulf states after the BP oil spill and said Mississippi currently lacks a comparable plan.
The committee moved a voice vote of "title sufficient; do pass" and reported the bill out of committee. The transcript records committee discussion about board composition and that the governor's office would retain administrative control of funds.
