Speeches & Testimony

Madam Chair, today I am truly honored to bring to the floor a bipartisan bill championed by many colleagues from throughout the country and many individuals and organizations passionately committed to our oceans, lakes, and coastlines and to the ecosystems, communities, and economies that depend on them.

I especially want to recognize my colleagues who introduced and advocated the measures that are incorporated in this bill: Representatives Kilmer, Huffman, Wittman, Quigley, Pallone, Pingree, Norton, Carbajal, Ruppersberger, and Young.

This bill consolidates 10 bipartisan bills, cosponsored by a total of 24 of my minority colleagues, that tackle the crisis and challenge of our time: climate change.

Climate change, of course, knows no partisan, country, or other manmade boundaries. It indiscriminately threatens us all, but it is especially insidious as it applies to our world's oceans, lakes, and coastlines.

Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a special report on ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate, making crystal clear that our oceans and coasts are under mortal threat.

Over 40 percent of Americans live in coastal counties right on our oceans and lakes. These communities not only account for nearly half of our U.S. gross domestic product, but they are on the front lines of climate change and need resources today to help prepare for and respond to the effects of climate change, including flooding, sea level rise, severe weather, coastal erosion, and changing water conditions that affect ecosystems and fish populations.

They need help, and as we help them, we help all of us. We know from a generation of data now that every dollar invested in predisaster mitigation saves at least $6 in recovery costs. H.R. 729 includes bipartisan measures that will do this in four ways.

First, it will improve coastal resilience and economic enhancement by making several important updates to the Coastal Zone Management Act, a then-revolutionary law from 1972 to establish a partnership between the Federal Government and coastal and Great Lakes States. It will also help communities implement climate-resilient living shoreline projects that use natural materials to protect communities and ecosystems instead of hard or armored walls and infrastructure that we know are less effective.

Second, it will reinforce fish habitat conservation and fisheries research. It will also authorize steady funding for the U.S. Geological Survey to conduct science and research activities to support fishery management in the Great Lakes and to restore the loss of basic fishery science capabilities and accelerate implementation of new technology.

Third, recognizing that responsible management of the oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes relies on robust data, this bill will reauthorize the integrated coastal and ocean observation system and, for the first time, formally authorize the digital coast partnership, both of which are led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Finally, H.R. 729 will update the National Sea Grant College Program to ensure the United States has a strong marine and coastal science and policy workforce so that we can continue to develop smart policy solutions in the future.

This bipartisan bill is supported by a plethora of diverse organizations across our country, including the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Project, the American Sportfishing Association, and Ocean Conservancy.

It won't, in and of itself, solve climate change. That takes a much larger, more focused, and deliberate international effort. But it will move our Federal policy into the present and the future as to what risks arise for our oceans, lakes, and coasts and their communities, and this bill is an imperative step in the difficult process we face.