Today’s Hearing on the FY 2010 NOAA Budget: Opening Statement – John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman
June 11, 2009
This has been an exciting week for our oceans, starting out on Monday with World Oceans Day, and celebrating Capitol Hill Ocean Week. As Chairman of this Committee, I am very proud that we have taken the time, with Senator Cantwell’s leadership, to highlight the great economic and environmental wealth that our oceans and coasts hold.
I am very pleased that the Committee will be hearing from The Honorable Jane Lubchenco, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), today as we discuss our oceans, climate change, and many other important issues in the context of the NOAA 2010 budget hearing.
This past Tuesday, the Committee discussed the importance of the blue economy to our nation. We discussed the critical jobs and economic opportunities that emerge from our oceans, Great Lakes, and coastal resources. We started a dialogue that we will continue here today about the need to preserve the value of our oceans and coasts in the face of climate change.
Simply put - our oceans are in peril. Pollution harms the animals that live in the sea, the foods we eat, and the beaches that Americans hold dear. There are areas of the ocean that are now so oxygen-depleted that animals can no longer exist.
The oceans are also becoming more acidic, which reduces the productivity of our fisheries and shellfish harvests by literally dissolving organisms and disrupting the food web. Climate change is further exacerbating all of these problems and threatens the economic and environmental viability of the oceans — a critical global resource that covers seventy percent of the surface of the earth.
We rely on NOAA to take these threats head-on to help Americans respond to climate change and to maintain the U.S. economy. Dr. Lubchenco, your leadership and your insight are critical to the nation’s well being. NOAA is the nation’s premier science agency charged with managing, restoring, and conserving our coastal and marine resources, in addition to understanding and predicting changes in our weather and atmosphere.
The President’s FY 2010 budget request for NOAA was $4.48 million. I do not believe this request is adequate. The agency needs to meet its current mandates and prepare the nation for the impacts of a changing climate. The current budget number will not get us there.
NOAA is the premier ocean-science resource in the United States. The agency is critical to our understanding of climate change and helping communities adapt. This is a time for action to make sure we are protecting our oceans and coasts and the wealth of resources that they provide for the future. I hope the Administration will take bold action and answer the call to double the NOAA budget.
NOAA must have additional resources to:
- Better predict, monitor, model, and understand the effects of increasing carbon dioxide emissions on the oceans, rising sea levels, and other climate impacts;
- Establish a National Climate Service to provide the tools to help our communities and industries adapt to climate change; and,
- Create new blue jobs in oceans and human health, aquaculture, renewable energy, and ocean science and management.
Dr. Lubchenco, thank you for your testimony before the Committee. I look forward to leading the charge to strengthen NOAA’s budget and to working with you this Congress.
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