[Congressional Bills 118th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 1670 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 1670 To amend the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 with respect to pre- agreement costs of emergency watershed protection measures, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 21, 2023 Mr. Curtis (for himself and Mr. Garamendi) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To amend the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 with respect to pre- agreement costs of emergency watershed protection measures, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Making Access To Cleanup Happen Act of 2023'' or the ``MATCH Act of 2023''. SEC. 2. EMERGENCY WATERSHED PROGRAM. Section 403 of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2203) is amended by adding at the end the following: ``(c) Pre-Agreement Costs.-- ``(1) Sponsor.--For purposes of this subsection, the term `sponsor' means a State or local government, or an Indian Tribe (as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450b)). ``(2) Pre-agreement project costs.--Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall-- ``(A) identify a list of emergency watershed protection measures the cost of which may be incurred by a sponsor prior to entering into an agreement with the Secretary pursuant to this section; and ``(B) develop a procedure, including appropriate deadlines, to be implemented at the State level, through which a sponsor may request, for a specified natural disaster, additional emergency watershed protection measures the cost of which may be incurred by a sponsor prior to entering into an agreement with the Secretary pursuant to this section. ``(3) Agreement contribution.--If the Secretary and the sponsor enter into an agreement pursuant to this section, the Secretary shall consider any applicable pre-agreement costs incurred by a sponsor for undertaking emergency watershed protection measures identified pursuant to paragraph (2) as meeting part of the sponsor's contribution towards the project costs. ``(4) Assumption of risk.--Nothing in this subsection requires the Secretary to enter into an agreement with a sponsor, and a sponsor undertaking emergency watershed protection measures prior to entering into an agreement with the Secretary pursuant to this section shall assume the risk of incurring any costs of undertaking such measures.''. <all>