HR5063-119

What This Bill Does

The Safe Beaches, Safe Swimmers Act permits the Secretary of the Interior to seek agreements with local government agencies to provide lifeguards where a staffing shortage threatens monitoring at a designated federal swimming area or beach. Eligible locations are normally monitored by federal lifeguards and managed by the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management or Bureau of Reclamation. Temporary absences such as annual or sick leave do not qualify.

Who Benefits and How

Local government agencies supplying lifeguards under these agreements gain reimbursement of all reasonable costs. Swimming-area visitors could gain rescue and first-aid coverage when federal positions cannot be adequately staffed. National Park Service managers and managers in the other listed bureaus gain an option for filling qualifying gaps without hiring all replacement lifeguards federally.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of the Interior must reimburse reasonable costs when it enters a covered agreement. Local government lifeguards must provide staffing during normal seasonal operating hours and rescue and first-aid services as needed. Compared with the introduced text, the reported bill makes seeking agreements optional and removes mandatory revisions of pre-enactment agreements to require reimbursement regardless of earlier cost-sharing terms. Local governments therefore lose those proposed guarantees, not an existing statutory payment entitlement.

Key Provisions

• Authorizes local-government lifeguard agreements at qualifying Interior-managed swimming locations.
• Requires reimbursement of all reasonable costs under agreements entered through this authority.
• Limits eligible shortages to persistent staffing problems rather than temporary employee absences.
• Modifies the introduced mandate to discretionary authority and removes compulsory revision of older agreements.