Speeches & Testimony

Mr. Speaker, S. 914, the Coordinated Ocean Observations and Research Act, would reauthorize the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 2009, called IOOS for short.

For over 10 years now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has implemented this data-driven national regional partnership to successfully improve safety, enhance the economy, and protect the environment.

IOOS is a coordinated network of people and technology consisting of  Federal partners and regional associations that generates and  disseminates continuous data and models for our oceans and the Great Lakes. These data give us a crucial understanding of environmental variables, like temperature, salinity, currents, nutrient concentrations, contaminant levels, and more.

This bill would also clarify the authority of NOAA in regards to post-storm assessments, which NOAA has been doing the work for since it was appropriated funds in 2016. The bill makes technical challenges to the COASTAL Act of 2012 so that NOAA can successfully collect the required data to perform post-storm assessments and then provide that information to FEMA.

And finally, this legislation would codify establishment of the National Water Center as the primary facility for hydrologic decision support services. As we saw from the historic flooding events last year, it is critical that NOAA has these decision support tools.

In the face of climate change, it is so important that our environmental planners and managers have the tools they need to ensure safety for the American people and the longevity of our coastal natural resources. The Coordinated Ocean Observations and Research Act will put us on that path.