Press Releases

(Honolulu, HI) – Congressman Ed Case (HI-01) announced today that the House Appropriations Committee has approved $71.473 billion in funding for federal commerce, justice and science programs for upcoming Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, including some $100 million-plus in increased funding for ocean and atmospheric programs.

“This measure is the main vehicle for funding the principal federal programs benefiting our oceans and atmosphere, and this year’s bill improves further on existing programs,” said Case.

“Among all the critical programs this bill will continue to fund, one literally rises to the top: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) observatory on Mauna Loa, which has provided consistent measurements of the level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere for more than 60 years,” said Case.

“The work atop Mauna Loa is the basis of the world-renowned ‘Keeling Curve’, demonstrating rapidly accelerating climate change beyond any reasonable scientific doubt, with its data relied upon by more than 500 external partners and stakeholders internationally.”

Case continued: “This bill will further upgrade the capabilities of the observatory and NOAA’s other Atmospheric Baseline Observatories to ensure that we have the latest accurate understanding of how our atmosphere is changing and what we must do to level that curve.”

Case is a member of both the Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee and of the House Natural Resources Committee and its Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife with jurisdiction over national ocean programs. “This bill’s support of ocean research and management is not only critical to the wellbeing of our world’s oceans, but to continuing to expand Hawaii’s world-leading ocean research capacities,” said Case.  

Case’s Appropriations Committee is responsible for allocating funding to federal government agencies, departments and organizations on an annual basis through twelve separate bills.

The committee’s FY 2021 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies bill passed today funds the U.S. Department of Commerce, Department of Justice, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Science Foundation (NSF). The total funding level is a reduction of $1.7 billion below the FY 2020 enacted level reflecting the additional cost in FY 2020 of the 2020 Census.

Ocean and atmosphere-related funding requested and secured by Case include:

• $1.25 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Atmospheric Baseline Observatories, which includes the Mauna Loa Observatory, to modernize infrastructure.  

• $58 million, a $2.5 million increase, for the NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries Program, which includes the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

• $34 million, a $5.5 million increase, for the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program.

• Rejection of the President’s proposed $11 million cut for the NOAA Tsunami Warning Program.

• $42.724 million for Ocean Exploration and Research, which is expected to fund work to map our Exclusive Economic Zone around Hawai‘i and the Pacific.

• $9 million for the Marine Debris Program to clean up our oceans and develop solutions to land-generated debris.

• $127 million for Marine Mammals, Sea Turtles, and Other Protected Species, a $4.8 million increase. These funds help to protect Hawai‘i species including monk seals and Hawaiian green sea turtles.

Other Case requests included in the bill focus on helping communities and industries in need of support and include:

• A directive to the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration to report to Congress on how the federal government can best assist the travel and tourism industry to address the severe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• $52 million, a $10 million increase, for the Minority Business Development Agency. This includes $3 million for Native American Business Development, including Native Hawaiians.

• $38 million, a $2 million increase, for the NASA Minority University Research and Education Project to support minority-serving institutions and its underrepresented and underserved students, including women and girls, and persons with disabilities, into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The measure also adopted various Case requests for funding of national programs of special importance to Hawai‘i, including:

• NSF Astronomy Assets, which includes the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Maui.

• NASA Planetary Defense programs, which support the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Reporting System (Pan-STARRS) on Maui.

• $343 million, rejecting the President’s proposed cuts, for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program.

• $88 million for the National Instant Background Checks System (NICS) to run background checks on gun purchases.

• $348 million, a $15 million increase, for the U.S. Commercial Service, which offers American companies a full range of expertise in international trade to export and expand to new markets. Honolulu hosts an office of the U.S. Commercial Service focused on exporting Hawai‘i products to Asia.

Video of Case addressing the Appropriations Committee in favor of the bill can be found here.

His written remarks are here.

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