(a) In general

Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of the National Ocean Exploration Act,¹ the Administrator shall develop an integrated ocean and coastal mapping Federal funding match opportunity, to be known as the “Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund” in memory of Rear Admiral Richard T. Brennan, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with Federal, State, Tribal, local, nonprofit, private industry, or academic partners in order to increase the coordinated acquisition, processing, stewardship, and archival of new ocean and coastal mapping data in United States waters.

(b) Rules

The Administrator shall develop administrative and procedural rules for the ocean and coastal mapping Federal funding match opportunity developed under subsection (a), to include—

(1) specific and detailed criteria that must be addressed by an applicant, such as geographic overlap with preestablished priorities, number and type of project partners, benefit to the applicant, coordination with other funding opportunities, and benefit to the public;

(2) determination of the appropriate funding match amounts and mechanisms to use, such as grants, agreements, or contracts; and

(3) other funding award criteria as are necessary or appropriate to ensure that evaluations of proposals and decisions to award funding under this section are based on objective standards applied fairly and equitably to those proposals.

(c) Geospatial services and contract vehicles

The ocean and coastal mapping Federal funding match opportunity developed under subsection (a) shall leverage Federal expertise and capacities for geospatial services and Federal geospatial contract vehicles using the private sector for acquisition efficiencies.