HR-6893 — Chesapeake Bay Watershed Advancement for Training, Education, Restoration, and Science (WATERS) Act

YourVoice.Now Summary

EnvironmentTransparency & AccountabilityCorporate Benefits

Rewrites NOAA's Chesapeake Bay office — ends a required local restoration grant program, adds no money.

Environment

Oyster, blue crab and marsh restoration — new optional NOAA program

NOAA could start a program to protect and rebuild priority Bay habitats and species, including oysters, blue crabs, salt marshes, sea grass, striped bass and menhaden. It could hand out grants and technical help. Nothing in the bill requires NOAA to start it or sets money aside for it.

Bay lessons in local schools — new grants for teachers and classes

NOAA could set up a Bay education and training program and give grants to schools. The money could pay for classroom lessons, field trips on the water, teacher training and paid internships. The program is optional and the bill sets aside no money.

Required grants for local Bay restoration — program would end

Today the law requires NOAA to run a small-grants program in the Bay watershed and pay up to 75 percent of a project's cost. Local governments, the District of Columbia and Bay-area nonprofits use it for fish passages, reefs, wetlands, oyster beds and invasive species work. The bill deletes that requirement.

Transparency & Accountability

Public access to Chesapeake Bay science — research turned into usable products

NOAA would have to track Bay water quality, fish and habitat, then organize what it learns into products that the public, scientists and local officials can actually use. Today the law only asks the office to help spread the findings of Bay projects.

Corporate Benefits

Federal help for permitted fish and shellfish farms

The new habitat program could give grants, contracts or technical help to fish and shellfish farms that hold a valid federal or state permit. That is direct federal support for a commercial industry, sitting inside a restoration program.

More about this bill

If you live near the Chesapeake Bay, this bill rewrites what NOAA's Bay office does. It would end a required small-grants program for local restoration work. That program pays up to 75 percent of the cost of fish passages, reefs, wetlands and oyster beds. Local governments and Bay-area nonprofits are the ones who apply. NOAA could set up broader habitat and education programs instead, but nothing would require it to. The bill's stated purpose is to reauthorize the office, but it authorizes no money. It also deletes the office's spending line, which last covered budget year 2006. Nothing replaces it. The office would have to turn its Bay research into products the public can use. Nothing here changes what a household pays or receives.

Congressional Summary

Congress's official summary of this bill still describes an earlier version of the text, so we have left it out here. You can read it on Congress.gov.

Congress.gov →

Legislative Subjects

Advisory bodiesAir qualityAquacultureAquatic ecologyAtmospheric science and weatherChesapeake BayClimate change and greenhouse gasesCongressional oversightDelawareDepartment of CommerceEducation programs fundingEducational technology and distance educationElementary and secondary educationEnvironmental assessment, monitoring, researchEnvironmental educationExecutive agency funding and structureFishesGeography and mappingHistoric sites and heritage areas

Details

Congress: 119th
Chamber: House
Status: summarized
Action: Passed House
Action Date: 2026-09-14
Date Added: 2026-09-09
Source: Congress.gov →

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