On Friday, December 18, 2020, the President signed into law:
S. 910, the “National Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act of 2020,” which reauthorizes the National Sea Grant College Program through fiscal year 2025; clarifies that the scope of the program includes financial assistance for research, training, and technology transfer; and modifies the Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship Program;
S. 945, the “Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act,” which requires certain issuers of securities to establish that they are not owned or controlled by a foreign government, specifically if the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is unable to audit specified reports because the issuer has retained a foreign public accounting firm that is not subject to inspection by the Board;
S. 1069, the “Digital Coast Act,” which requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to maintain a program capable of efficiently integrating coastal data with decision-support tools, training, and best practices to improve local, State, and Federal capacities to manage the coastal region; and
S. 1982, the “Save Our Seas 2.0 Act,” which establishes a nongovernmental Marine Debris Foundation and a prize competition for the “Genius Prize for Save Our Seas Innovation”; increases efforts to engage, cooperate, and coordinate with other governmental and nongovernmental entities to raise international awareness of plastic waste and combat marine debris; and creates infrastructure grant programs to be administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.