Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act
Click any stage to learn more about the legislative process.
This law reauthorizes, through fiscal year 2030, federal funding for U.S. Geological Survey research and monitoring that supports Great Lakes fisheries management.
It extends an existing program rather than creating a new one, keeping binational fishery science, invasive species research, and stock assessments running without a funding lapse.
What this law does
What it does
The law amends a 2020 appropriations act to extend authorized funding for Great Lakes fishery research and monitoring conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey's Great Lakes Science Center, changing the expiration year from 2025 to 2030. This research supports binational fisheries management in the Great Lakes Basin, including invasive species science, fishery resource studies, and biological assessment tools used to inform management decisions. The law makes a single technical amendment, striking one year and inserting another in the existing statute. It does not create new programs, change how the research is conducted, or alter agency authority beyond extending the funding authorization period.
Key provisions
- 1Extends the authorization for Great Lakes fishery research and monitoring funding from fiscal year 2025 through fiscal year 2030.
Who is affected
The U.S. Geological Survey and its Great Lakes Science Center, which conduct the research; state, tribal, and Canadian fishery management agencies that rely on the science for binational management decisions; and Great Lakes fishing industries and communities that depend on healthy fish stocks.
Why it matters
Without reauthorization, funding authority for this research program would have expired in 2025, potentially disrupting ongoing invasive species monitoring and fishery assessments that Great Lakes states and Canada use jointly to manage shared fish populations. The extension provides five more years of funding certainty for that work.
What changed
Changes to existing law
Reauthorizes Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (16 U.S.C. 941h(d)) (Sec. 2)
Strikes '2025' and inserts '2030', extending the authorization period for Great Lakes fishery research funding by five years.
Agencies directed to act
Funding and costs
Congressional Budget Office estimate
CBO estimates S. 2878 would cost $70 million over the 2026–2030 period and $5 million after 2030, all from discretionary spending subject to appropriation, with no effect on the deficit.
S. 2878 would reauthorize $15 million per year from 2026 through 2030 for the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor, assess, and research fisheries in the Great Lakes Basin — authority that expired at the end of 2025. CBO estimates the bill would cost $70 million in discretionary spending (money Congress must separately appropriate) over the 2026–2030 period and an additional $5 million after 2030; it has no effect on direct (mandatory) spending, revenues, or the deficit. CBO identified no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates in the bill.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Became Public Law No: 119-67.
Official CRS summary
Show the CRS summaryHide the CRS summary
This act reauthorizes through FY2030 research and monitoring conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in support of binational fisheries within the Great Lakes Basin. This research is completed through the Great Lakes Science Center and may involve invasive species science, studies on fishery resources, and the use of biological assessment tools and other capabilities to support fishery management decisions.
Legislative subjects
Ecology; Environmental assessment, monitoring, research; Great Lakes; Marine and coastal resources, fisheries; Public Lands and Natural Resources