1. Short title This Act may be cited as the National Estuaries and Acidification Research Act of 2018 or the NEAR Act of 2018 . 2. Congressional findings Congress finds the following: (1) Ocean acidification impacts human health, natural resources, and the environmental, economic and recreational uses of the coastline. (2) The current understanding of ocean acidification impacts on estuarine ecosystems is inadequate to fully prepare and manage for changing environmental conditions in nearshore locations. (3) While pH can be measured with high precision and accuracy in open ocean environments, more understanding of the carbonate system in estuarine ecosystems is needed for precise and accurate measurements and observations. (4) The interaction of multiple stressors, including salinity, pH, temperature, sea-level rise and nutrient-input, within estuarine ecosystems, is inadequately understood for managing the health, economic, recreational and environmental impacts driven by these interactions. (5) A better understanding is needed of how anthropogenic influences in coastal environments affect estuarine ecosystems. (6) More integration and coordination is needed between regional, national, and global environmental observations in estuarine environments, supporting prior investments in related topics such as nutrient loading, hypoxia, ocean acidification, and harmful algae bloom research and observational systems. 3. Study examining the impact of ocean acidification and other environmental stressors on estuarine environments (a) In general Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall make appropriate arrangements with the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies under which the Board shall conduct a study that— (1) examines the existing science of ocean acidification in estuarine environments; (2) examines the challenges to studying ocean acidification and ocean acidification’s interactions with other environment stressors in estuarine environments