    [House Hearing, 113 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

      COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
                                      2014

    _______________________________________________________________________

                                    HEARINGS

                                    BEFORE A

                               SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

                           COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

                             HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                         ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
                                  FIRST SESSION
                                    ________
        SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES
                        FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia, Chairman
     JOHN ABNEY CULBERSON, Texas        CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania
     ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama        ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
     JO BONNER, Alabama                 MICHAEL M. HONDA, California
     TOM GRAVES, Georgia                JOSE E. SERRANO, New York
     THOMAS J. ROONEY, Florida
     ANDY HARRIS, Maryland

     NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Rogers, as Chairman of the Full
    Committee, and Mrs. Lowey, as Ranking Minority Member of the Full
    Committee, are authorized to sit as Members of all Subcommittees.
                  Mike Ringler, Jeff Ashford, Leslie Albright,
                        Diana Simpson, and Colin Samples,
                               Subcommittee Staff
                                    ________
                                     PART 8

                   STATEMENTS OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OTHER
                    INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS

                                       S

                                    ________
             Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

    PART 8--COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS
                                    FOR 2014
                                                                          ?
    ?
                                                                          ?

      COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
                                      2014

    _______________________________________________________________________

                                    HEARINGS

                                    BEFORE A

                               SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

                           COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

                             HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                         ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
                                  FIRST SESSION
                                    ________
        SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES
                        FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia, Chairman
     JOHN ABNEY CULBERSON, Texas        CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania
     ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama        ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
     JO BONNER, Alabama                 MICHAEL M. HONDA, California
     TOM GRAVES, Georgia                JOSE E. SERRANO, New York
     THOMAS J. ROONEY, Florida
     ANDY HARRIS, Maryland

     NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Rogers, as Chairman of the Full
    Committee, and Mrs. Lowey, as Ranking Minority Member of the Full
    Committee, are authorized to sit as Members of all Subcommittees.
                  Mike Ringler, Jeff Ashford, Leslie Albright,
                        Diana Simpson, and Colin Samples,
                               Subcommittee Staff
                                    ________
                                     PART 8

                   STATEMENTS OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OTHER
                    INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS

                                       S

                                    ________
             Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations
                                    ________
                         U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
     81-720                     WASHINGTON : 2013

                                      COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

                        HAROLD ROGERS, Kentucky, Chairman

     C. W. BILL YOUNG, Florida \1\      NITA M. LOWEY, New York
     FRANK R. WOLF, Virginia            MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio
     JACK KINGSTON, Georgia             PETER J. VISCLOSKY, Indiana
     RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN, New JerseyJOSE E. SERRANO, New York
     TOM LATHAM, Iowa                   ROSA L. DeLAURO, Connecticut
     ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama        JAMES P. MORAN, Virginia
     KAY GRANGER, Texas                 ED PASTOR, Arizona
     MICHAEL K. SIMPSON, Idaho          DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina
     JOHN ABNEY CULBERSON, Texas        LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD, California
     ANDER CRENSHAW, Florida            SAM FARR, California
     JOHN R. CARTER, Texas              CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania
     RODNEY ALEXANDER, Louisiana        SANFORD D. BISHOP, Jr., Georgia
     KEN CALVERT, California            BARBARA LEE, California
     JO BONNER, Alabama                 ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
     TOM COLE, Oklahoma                 MICHAEL M. HONDA, California
     MARIO DIAZ-BALART, Florida         BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
     CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania      TIM RYAN, Ohio
     TOM GRAVES, Georgia                DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Florida
     KEVIN YODER, Kansas                HENRY CUELLAR, Texas
     STEVE WOMACK, Arkansas             CHELLIE PINGREE, Maine
     ALAN NUNNELEE, Mississippi         MIKE QUIGLEY, Illinois
     JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska         WILLIAM L. OWENS, New York
     THOMAS J. ROONEY, Florida
     CHARLES J. FLEISCHMANN, Tennessee
     JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER, Washington
     DAVID P. JOYCE, Ohio
     DAVID G. VALADAO, California
     ANDY HARRIS, Maryland

     ----------
     1}}Chairman Emeritus

                   William E. Smith, Clerk and Staff Director

                                      (ii)

      COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
                                      2014

                                  ----------

               MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OUTSIDE WITNESSES HEARING

                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                             VETERANS' DRUG COURTS

                                    WITNESS

    HON. PATRICK MEEHAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF
        PENNSYLVANIA
        Mr. Wolf. The hearing will come to order.
        I would like to welcome my colleague, Mr. Meehan, and
    Jennifer Lopez.
        Unfortunately, there is a four-minute time limit and I
    apologize for it. That is just the way this place runs.
        But, anyway, your full statement will appear in the record.
    We will go to Mr. Meehan first.
        You are not covered by the light, and then go ahead.
        Mr. Meehan. Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Fattah, I am
    very grateful for giving us the opportunity to be with you
    today and for your continuing support for this important issue
    of courts that serve our veterans.
        I could tell the story through the numbers, and you will
    see in the written testimony the effect it has had, the
    reduction of $186,000 of costs to the Chester County court
    system by diversion and the fact that the statistics are
    demonstrating that they have nearly a complete record of those
    who enter these systems staying free of problems further with
    the system, recidivism being eliminated in many of the
    circumstances.
        So it is a remarkable story of accomplishment, but I do not
    believe that you can really appreciate it through the numbers.
    It is really in the stories of the veterans themselves. Many
    who have served overseas return with injuries and are
    rehabilitated through this process.
        I am delighted today to be joined by Ms. Lopez who has
    dedicated herself to the operation of one of the first two drug
    courts in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It is a story of
    redemption, success, and most important outreach to these
    important veterans.
        So let me turn it over to Ms. Lopez.
        Mr. Wolf. I am going to recognize Mr. Fattah. I apologize.
    Go ahead. You might have wanted to say something here.
        Mr. Fattah. I agree with what the chairman has said.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

      ADULT PROBATION AND PAROLE DEPARTMENT, CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

                                    WITNESS

    JENNIFER LOPEZ, DEPUTY CHIEF
        Ms. Lopez. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member
    Fattah.
        It is my great honor to appear before you today to advocate
    for funding for veterans' treatment courts.
        In 2010, Chester County was awarded grant funds through the
    American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to develop a veterans'
    treatment court.
        One of our first encounters was with Robert D. You see him
    here before me. Robert was an Army veteran who had been
    deployed to Iraq for two tours of duty. While in combat, he was
    exposed to multiple IED explosions and sustained injuries which
    included extensive heart damage making him a hundred percent
    disabled at his honorable discharge at the age of 31.
        In May of 2010, he entered the Chester County criminal
    justice system. Police responded to a report of a domestic
    disturbance. Robert was highly intoxicated and had to be tased
    to be taken into custody. He was charged with numerous violent
    offenses.
        Our veterans' court team immediately mobilized. The
    veterans' justice outreach coordinator who is part of our team
    informed us that Robert had a history of failed treatment
    attempts, had overdosed on alcohol at least twice, and was
    experiencing flashbacks, nightmares, and was becoming
    aggressive and paranoid.
        The district attorney who also sits on our team ran a
    background check and noted that all of his prior crimes
    occurred either during or immediately following his combat
    experience.
        Robert was diverted from jail within hours of his
    commitment. He was placed in treatment at the VA and given a
    diversionary sentence.
        We received the following letter from Robert:
        I have been battling PTSD and alcoholism for several years
    now since returning home from Operation Iraqi Freedom. When I
    came home, I was haunted and embarrassed by the things I had
    done in Iraq. Trying to be a man and suck it up, I turned to
    alcohol and it worked.
        ``In May of 2010, I finally hit my bottom. I was out of my
    mind drunk again, combative with the police who were only
    trying to help me, and then made the mistake of trying to
    drive.
        ``I was sent to Chester County Prison with the assumption
    that my life was over. I had finally done it big time. With
    eight charges total pending against me and a seven-year prison
    term, I believed there was no hope left.
        ``Without the opportunity that veterans' court has given me
    and my family, I truly believe I would be dead. When I speak to
    veterans at the VA in Coatesville, I often tell the story about
    how I was rescued by the Chester County judicial system. You
    can imagine that gets a laugh from a group of people in need of
    the same help I received and maybe are too proud to admit it.
    Robert D., U.S. Army, retired.''
        In an already overtaxed criminal justice system, combat-
    related symptoms combined with substance abuse and violence can
    be overwhelming and misunderstood. Without the Chester County
    veterans' treatment court, it is doubtful that Robert would
    have been diverted from jail and it is highly unlikely that he
    would have remained out of jail.
        That initial ARRA grant funding gave us the ability to hire
    staff whose sole focus was identifying and screening veterans
    that entered the system, many of whom feel shame and have
    difficulty asking for help.
        It afforded us the opportunity to build a team of veterans'
    affairs and criminal justice professionals, many of whom are
    veterans themselves, our judge, Bill Kelly, our supervisor, who
    is here with me today, our probation officer. Even our drug
    testing technician is a veteran.
        And that team looks beyond the criminal history and failed
    treatment to consider the facts and circumstances leading up to
    the offense and the additional stresses faced by the members of
    Armed Forces and were willing to take a chance.
        We understand the veteran who drives 110 miles an hour and
    brandishes a weapon to someone who cut him off in traffic, the
    vet who is late for his eight a.m. appointment because he
    refuses to sleep while the rest of his house sleeps.
        The program is not easy. It is not a get out of jail free
    card. Over the past two and a half years, we have diverted 31
    vets who have entered the criminal justice system. Four have
    graduated. None of them have been rearrested.
        Our veterans' court is modeled after a successful drug
    court. According to the National Association of Drug Court
    Professionals, drug courts are the most successful, cost-
    effective, scientifically validated criminal justice
    intervention in the past 20 years.
        Seventy-five percent of drug court graduates remain arrest
    free after two years. For every dollar invested in drug court,
    taxpayers save $3.36 in criminal justice costs alone. When you
    add reduced victimization and healthcare utilization, that
    rises to $27.00.
        In order for all jurisdictions to effectively respond to
    and assist veterans, there must be support for the
    establishment and expansion of veterans' treatment courts.
        In closing, Abraham Lincoln said, ``I have always found
    that mercy bears richer fruit than strict justice.'' I believe
    that is the essence of what a treatment court does.
        Make no mistake. We as a society and as taxpayers are
    paying for our struggling veterans one way or another and they
    pay the ultimate price. We should be wise about your choice and
    we should be socially and fiscally responsible.
        Thank you.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. I want to thank you both.
        Mr. Meehan brought this to us last year. There is in the
    bill that we are going to pass today $3.9 million for veterans'
    courts.
        And, you know, I plan on supporting this next year. I think
    it is very, very important. The fact is I am going to get all
    the information and send it to my governor, too, because I
    think it makes a lot of sense.
        So I want to thank you and I want to thank Ms. Lopez.
        Ms. Lopez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Wolf. Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. I as a younger legislator in the Pennsylvania
    Senate was the only legislator that worked with the Supreme
    Court on creating our drug courts in Pennsylvania and I support
    the veterans' courts.
        This morning, I had breakfast with General Eric Shinseki,
    the secretary of the VA. And I also think that there are
    opportunities for us to think about how the VA can be
    supportive of these activities because I think that your
    example shows that this can work in other areas throughout the
    country.
        So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Wolf. I think you ought to write every governor,
    frankly. The report I saw, there are 21 suicides a day and we
    owe these men and women so much.
        You know, thank you for bringing the idea to us and, Ms.
    Lopez, thank you for being here.
        Ms. Lopez. Thank you for having me.
        Mr. Meehan. Mr. Chairman, again, thank you for not only
    your leadership but your vision.
        And these are things that just do not make sense dollar
    wise. As you said, they save lives for those who have put their
    lives on the line for us.
        Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        Mr. Meehan. Thank you, Ranking Member.
        Mr. Wolf. The next witness will be Gabrielle Martin,
    National Council of EEOC Locals.
        Welcome. And the light is going to go on. I apologize,
    but----
        Ms. Martin. That is okay. I thank you and I appreciate
    that.
        Mr. Wolf. Welcome again. Yeah, thank you.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                        NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EEOC LOCALS

                                    WITNESS

    GABRIELLE MARTIN, PRESIDENT
        Ms. Martin. Good morning, everyone.
        I want to thank Chairman Wolf, Ranking Member Fattah, and
    other Members of this subcommittee for the opportunity to
    provide testimony regarding the challenges faced at EEOC and
    the EEOC's budget for fiscal year 2014.
        I also want to thank all of you for your efforts in the
    past to increase EEOC's budget.
        As you know, the union is the exclusive representative of
    the bargaining unit employees which include investigators,
    mediators, attorneys, administrative judges, and all of our
    support staff.
        The work we do is important because EEOC was created by
    bipartisan legislation in 1964 and the passage of that act was
    all about jobs, people being able to get and keep jobs free
    from illegal discrimination in the workplace. But that promise
    to workers is being broken and sequestration and furloughs will
    just hurt workers more.
        Now, EEOC's budget largely funds salaries and rental costs.
    So even though we get $360 million, 80 percent or more is
    salaries and rental costs. That budget was cut in fiscal year
    2011 and we have been operating with $6 million less per year.
    That means hiring is frozen and we now are down to 2,245
    employees.
        That is important because in the last five years, every
    year we have seen an incremental increase in the number of
    charges coming in the door. At the same time, our staffing has
    fluctuated.
        And if you look at the chart on page five, you will see
    there is a great correspondence between when we have sufficient
    staff and our ability to manage our backlog and reduce it as
    well as reduce case processing times.
        Currently case processing times are at nine months. We
    ended last year with 78,000 cases backlogged. And the EEOC is
    predicting that these continued budget cuts and furloughs will
    mean that within the next year, we will have 98,000 cases
    backlogged. That means that both the victims of discrimination
    suffer as well as the employers.
        EEOC is now planning eight and a half days of furloughs, so
    we expect that both the processing time will go up as well as
    the backlog. And what that means for new people coming to us is
    that they now experience about 28 minutes before they get to
    talk to someone to even say, ``I think I have a case, what
    should I do, where should I go?''
        That is troubling, and with those increases will come
    another factor because to manage some of the budget cuts, EEOC
    is cutting funding to our state FEPAs which means we are going
    to get somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 cases in the next year
    because we cannot fund those.
        So our ask is that the subcommittee recommend restoring our
    budget to the $367 million mark. It is one you supported in the
    past. And, again, we appreciate that.
        We are also looking for some oversight for some EEOC's
    questionable practices. They still refuse to implement the
    union's cost-efficient and effective intake plan. OPM has
    recently used such a plan where they concentrate staff to get
    the front-end information so people who have to adjudicate and
    investigate get a file that they can actually go out and
    investigate right away, thereby reducing waiting times and
    allowing those investigators to investigate instead of doing
    front-end intake.
        On top of that, we are seeking oversight for our federal
    sector programs where we have got some pilots out which may
    impede a complainant's ability to have discovery and a hearing
    in those cases.
        So, again, I thank you for the opportunity to address you
    this morning.
        [The information follows:]

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        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.009

        Mr. Wolf. Well, thank you for your testimony.
        I have no questions, but I just think hopefully we can come
    up with some grand bargain that eliminates the sequestration
    certainly for the next nine years and maybe even for the rest
    of this year. But I can see it is going to be very, very
    difficult.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. I would just take note that the bill that is on
    the floor does provide a slight increase in the EEOC of $3
    million. So we are making some progress.
        Ms. Martin. And we thank you for that and we hope that will
    be acted on accordingly. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much.
        The next witness will be Howard Silver, Consortium of
    Social Science Associations.
        Welcome.
        Mr. Fattah, do you have any comments?
        Mr. Fattah. Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                   CONSORTIUM OF SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATIONS

                                    WITNESS

    HOWARD SILVER, PH.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
        Mr. Silver. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Fattah.
        I am Howard Silver, the executive director of the
    Consortium of Social Science Associations, and it is nice to be
    back before you.
        The consortium represents 115 professional associations,
    activist societies, universities, and research institutes, and
    our membership list is attached to my testimony.
        Given that we do not have any budget numbers for fiscal
    year 2014 out of the Administration, COSSA is simply asking you
    to restore the sequestration numbers of NSF and NIJ and BJS and
    to continue the set-aside that you have been supporting for the
    last few years, the justice programs for the National Institute
    of Justice and the Bureau of Justice statistics.
        Quickly, the importance of NSF to the SBE sciences is very
    high, 62 percent of basic research in these disciplines
    conducted at universities in support of NSF and in some
    disciplines like political science, it is 95 percent of that
    support.
        Let me just rattle off the importance of the sciences to
    the Nation. My written testimony provides examples.
        First of all, at a House science hearing recently on cyber
    security, three witnesses from the private sector talked
    specifically about the importance of the social behavioral
    sciences to cyber security. It is not just an engineering
    problem as they said.
        We have contributed to transformative research from our
    Nobel Prize winners, Elinor Ostrom, a political scientist, and
    Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist. Both have won the Nobel Prize
    in economics. That has transformed our thinking about
    collective and individual decision making. And it also
    illustrates the importance of interdisciplinary research.
        Thirdly, our scientists have done a lot of work on disaster
    research both in terms of communications warning, in terms of
    people's behavior during disasters, and in terms of resilience
    afterwards.
        And on April 25th, there will be a briefing sponsored by
    the House R&D caucus and the Coalition for National Science
    Funding that will have speakers talking about these issues,
    geographic information systems that transform state and local
    government, businesses, and how police operate.
        It has generated a multi-billion dollar industry that
    started with NSF support for the National Center for Graphic
    Information and Analysis back in the 1980s.
        Youth violence research, you had the hearing on Tuesday.
    The report prepared for you by the social, behavioral, and
    economic sciences directorate I think gave an indication of
    what people can do and the importance of the support that NSF
    gives the research in this area.
        The initiative on neuroscience which Mr. Fattah and with
    your support, Mr. Chairman, has become increasingly important
    for NSF. And as Mr. Fattah noted on Tuesday, there is a major
    solicitation out. SBE's behavioral and cognitive science
    division has been doing research in this area for a long time
    and will continue to do so.
        Shifting gears to the National Institute of Justice and the
    Bureau of Justice Statistics, James Q. Wilson, who gave us the
    broken windows theory, argued that it was very important to
    have a federal role in crime research and statistics.
        The National Institute of Justice has done an important job
    in transforming themselves over the last years to become a
    major science agency with peer review, randomized control
    trials, and the crimesolution.gov dissemination.
        There is an emphasis on translational criminology, putting
    research into practice. The Harvard executive sessions have
    been very important on policing and corrections. Chief
    Bueermann who you are going to hear from has participated in
    those. There is a lot of cooperation with NAS, incarceration
    and crime reduction roundtables.
        Thank you for your support of the NCVS redesign of BJS. And
    I thank you for the opportunity for letting me talk to you
    again this year.
        [The information follows:]

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        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.014

        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much. Thanks for appearing.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you generally for your support of the
    efforts and in particular, you take note of the neuroscience
    initiative.
        And I take note that it was made possible because of the
    chairman and our counterparts in the Senate's willingness to
    undertake what I think is going to be a groundbreaking set of
    recommendations in June.
        So thank you.
        Mr. Silver. I agree with you on that.
        Mr. Wolf. The next witness will be Julie Stewart with
    Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
        Ms. Stewart, welcome. Your full statement will appear in
    the record.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                      FAMILIES AGAINST MANDATORY MINIMUMS

                                    WITNESS

    JULIE STEWART, PRESIDENT
        Ms. Stewart. Thank you.
        Good morning, Chairman Wolf and Mr. Fattah. My name is
    Julie Stewart. I am the president of Families Against Mandatory
    Minimums, a sentencing reform organization.
        We are not here to ask for money. I am here to suggest ways
    that you can save it. Because my time is short, I would ask
    that you review my written statement for more information about
    FAMM as well as for our recommendations for back-end reforms to
    help reduce the Bureau of Prisons' budget that will not
    jeopardize public safety.
        We are especially interested in getting the Bureau of
    Prisons to increase the number of compassionate releases it
    grants and we recently co-authored a comprehensive report on
    that subject that we are happy to make available to you.
        While we wholeheartedly support common-sense back-end
    reforms, we think the best option for Congress is to focus on
    the front end, that is who is going to prison and for how long.
    And that is where the real savings are found.
        This subcommittee knows why reform is so desperately
    needed. The Bureau of Prisons' budget and population growth are
    out of control. We are spending billions locking up too many
    nonviolent offenders.
        The Congressional Research Service recently issued a report
    that rightly put much of the blame for the BoP growth on
    mandatory minimum sentencing laws. According to the CRS, they
    said not only has there been an increase in the number of
    federal offenses that carry a mandatory minimum penalty, but
    offenders who are convicted of offenses with mandatory minimums
    are being sent to prison for longer periods.
        Just yesterday in the Senate, Senators Rand Paul and
    Patrick Leahy introduced the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013,
    S. 619. It can help Congress address these problems.
        The bill creates a brand new broad safety valve subsection
    to 18 U.S.C. 3553(g) that would apply to all federal crimes
    that carry mandatory minimum sentences. It would allow the
    courts to sentence federal offenders below the mandatory
    minimum whenever that minimum term does not fulfill the goals
    of punishment established by Congress in 18 U.S.C. 3553(a).
        There are many public benefits of the Justice Safety Valve
    Act. First, it protects public safety. As one of the former
    speakers said, this is not a get out of jail free card either.
    It would not mean that people get off without prison time. It
    means that they do not get any more prison time than is
    necessary to keep us safe.
        It would also give courts flexibility to punish enough but
    not too much. It allows the courts to sentence a person below
    the mandatory minimum if that sentence is too lengthy, unjust,
    or unreasonable, or does not fit the offender or the crime.
        And if you remember in 1986, Congress passed mandatory
    minimum sentences to target drug kingpins, not the low level
    offenders that now fill our prisons.
        It would also save taxpayer money and focus that money on
    violent offenders. If a person receives the benefit of the
    Justice Safety Valve Act and is sentenced to five years in
    prison, for instance, instead of ten, it would save taxpayers
    and the Justice Department about $140,000 in corrections costs.
        These savings could be spent on more police or capturing
    violent criminals or on veterans' courts or terrorists. A
    broader safety valve is really necessary because the current
    safety valve only benefits drug offenders and minor priors and
    gun involvement even for a legally registered firearm that is
    never used can disqualify a person from it.
        A broader safety valve, the likes of which was introduced
    by Senators Paul and Leahy, would save prison space and money
    for the truly dangerous while preventing the absurd sentencing
    results that currently occur under our existing safety valve.
        Finally, without a safety valve like the one we are
    proposing and Senators Paul and Leahy have introduced, our
    current system has just one safety valve left and that is
    executive clemency. For whatever reasons, it is not being used
    either out of bureaucratic misconduct or presidential neglect,
    but we cannot talk about prison overcrowding and reserving
    prison space for the most dangerous people when we keep people
    like Clarence Aaron behind bars. He is serving his natural life
    in prison for a first-time nonviolent drug offense.
        FAMM asks the Members of this subcommittee to support smart
    sentencing reforms like the Justice Safety Valve Act which, I
    might add, in concept is supported by Senator Greenleaf from
    Pennsylvania who you may be familiar with, Mr. Fattah.
        We ask you to exercise oversight of DoJ and BoP's budgets,
    to press the agencies for reforms such as compassion release,
    increased use of home confinement, and the other
    recommendations in our written testimony.
        And, lastly, we urge you to investigate the Office of the
    Pardon Attorney.
        Thank you.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Fattah and I are going to be putting in a bill sometime
    later in the middle of the year to set up a national commission
    to look at all of these things.
        But, Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. And we did have the IG do an investigation of
    the Pardon Office and he testified just last week or the week
    before. It is hard to keep track of all of our hearings. The
    chairman works us so hard.
        But we are on this, and thank you very much for your
    testimony.
        Ms. Stewart. I hope you will keep their feet to the fire.
        Mr. Fattah. We will.
        Ms. Stewart. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        The next witness, Mr. Donald Kennedy, Regional Information
    Sharing Systems National Policy Group.
        I have no questions.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. No.
        Mr. Kennedy. Good morning.
        Mr. Wolf. Go ahead. Good morning.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

           REGIONAL INFORMATION SHARING SYSTEMS NATIONAL POLICY GROUP

                                    WITNESS

    DONALD F. KENNEDY, JR., CHAIR
        Mr. Kennedy. Chairman Wolf, Ranking Member Fattah, thank
    you. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you to
    discuss the Regional Information Sharing System or the RISS
    program.
        RISS, as you know, is a proven, trusted, innovative,
    evidence-based program that helps thousands of criminal justice
    agencies save lives, solve crimes, and prosecute offenders.
        RISS has served our Nation for over 40 years providing
    secure information, intelligence capabilities, investigative
    and analysis and officer safety deconfliction.
        Demands for RISS services has grown throughout the years.
    However, in fiscal year 2012, RISS funding was reduced by 40
    percent. RISS lost hundreds of years of expertise due to staff
    layoffs. This resulted in decreases in information sharing
    efforts, analytical services, investigative case support,
    training, and support for national programs.
        A Philadelphia police captain recently said RISS is our
    single most important intelligence partner. RISS is one of our
    best and greatest allies in our ongoing initiative to disrupt
    and dismember organized criminal enterprises.
        It is critical that RISS receive appropriate funding. It is
    respectfully requested that RISS in 2014 funding be restored to
    its fiscal year 2011 level of $45 million.
        If you recall last year on May 8th, Congressman Grimm along
    with Representative King and Barletta successfully amended the
    House CJS Appropriations Act with language that fully funded
    RISS back at $45 million. This action illustrates the House's
    continued commitment in support of the RISS program.
        RISS services over 9,000 criminal justice agencies which
    represents more than 892,000 officers. RISS operates RISSNET,
    the only nationwide secure but unclassified law enforcement
    information sharing provider that is governed by its users.
        Agencies can easily connect to RISSNET, share information
    and intelligence in a secure environment, and query multiple
    systems simultaneously by a federated search.
        By connecting to RISSNET, rather than funding the build-out
    of a new stand-alone system, hundreds of millions of dollars
    are saved and millions of data records are easily and quickly
    accessible by law enforcement.
        RISS also partners with a number of federal agencies and
    programs such as the Office of the Program Manager Information
    Sharing Environment, PM-ISE office, United States Attorneys'
    offices, the United States Department of State and diplomatic
    security officers, as well as Secret Service, Medicaid fraud
    control units, and the National Motor Vehicle Title Information
    System.
        RISSNET is one of four SBU networks currently providing
    assistance with the assured SBU interoperability initiative
    under the auspices of the White House and the PMIC's office.
        RISS supports the national suspicious activity reporting
    initiative as well as National Fusion Center efforts by
    connecting their systems to RISSNET.
        In December 2012, RISS was mentioned by the White House and
    the national strategy for information sharing and safeguarding.
        In 2008, RISS deployed RISSafe, the only comprehensive,
    nationwide office of safety and deconfliction system that is
    accessible 24/7, 365 days of the year and is available to all
    law enforcement. Since its inception, RISSafe has had more than
    615,000 operations and over 208 conflicts have been identified.
        Twenty-three RISSafe offices are currently operational, 17
    of which are other organizations other than RISS such as the
    Pennsylvania State Police, West Texas HIDTA, and San Diego.
        In 2012, RISS introduced RISS Mobile which allows officers
    to access RISSafe using smartphone technology.
        Over the last ten years, officers leveraging RISS have
    resulted in more than 48,000 offenders being arrested and more
    than $662 million in narcotics, property, and currency being
    seized.
        RISS is an excellent return on investment for our Nation. I
    understand the tough fiscal issues that we are facing in our
    country today, but for return on investment, we would challenge
    anyone to match the value RISS provides to public safety
    nationwide.
        On behalf of RISS, I appreciate the opportunity to speak
    with you before the committee and thank you for your support.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy.
        I know it is a good program and I support it.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. I agree with the chairman. Thank you for your
    service.
        Mr. Kennedy. Thank you very much, gentlemen.
        Mr. Wolf. Next is Scott Came with SEARCH, executive
    director.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                                     SEARCH

                                    WITNESS

    SCOTT CAME, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
        Mr. Came. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member
    Fattah, and Members of the committee.
        I am Scott Came, the executive director of SEARCH. I am
    pleased to be with you here today to address Department of
    Justice funding for the fiscal year 2014 appropriations bill,
    specifically for two critical programs that can help make the
    Nation safer, the NICS Act Record Improvement program or NARIP
    and the National Criminal History Improvement program, NCHIP.
        SEARCH's government appointed members have the
    responsibility among other things to oversee the implementation
    of NARIP and NCHIP within their states.
        Over the years, states have made great strides in meeting
    their criminal history record improvement goals under both
    programs despite severely limited funding levels for each.
    However, there is a great deal of work that remains to be done.
        In light of recent tragic events due to gun violence and
    the simultaneous demand for accurate, complete, and timely
    criminal history records for key decisions, there should be a
    priority placed on NARIP and NCHIP funding.
        Both NARIP and NCHIP focus on improvements to the accuracy
    of the criminal history record which in turn improves officer
    safety, allows judges to make more informed decisions, and
    helps authorized non-criminal justice users to make better
    decisions about volunteers who work with our vulnerable
    populations and, of course, those who wish to purchase
    firearms.
        And while complementary, each of these programs has
    specific and distinct goals. NARIP primarily focuses on
    enhancing decision making for firearms purchases such as
    increasing the number of disqualifying mental health records
    available to the system. NCHIP is focused on a broader range of
    criminal history improvements such as improving arrest and
    disposition matching.
        It is important to note that under current law, only 20
    states qualify for NARIP funding. Thus, the majority of the
    states rely on NCHIP for criminal history record and repository
    improvements.
        As such, SEARCH makes two key recommendations to the
    subcommittee. First, invest in background screening for
    firearms purchases. As you know, the vast majority of records
    used to make firearms transfer determinations are records
    maintained and made available by the states.
        Many states have made their records available to NICS
    despite a lack of sufficient funding to help build this
    infrastructure, but there is still a vast number of records
    missing from NICS and that situation needs to be remedied.
        The need for additional NARIP funding is not dependent on
    an expansion of the background checking system. It is to
    improve the system's effectiveness for existing requirements
    related to background screening for firearms purchases.
        For example, in New York, NARIP funding has enabled the
    State to form a multi-agency task force that focuses on the
    strategic oversight and governance of NICS data collection and
    submission improvements. To date, New York has submitted in
    excess of 165,000 records to the NICS index due to this
    program.
        In Florida, the Department of Law Enforcement is working
    with the clerks of court to retrieve historical mental health
    records to better ensure those adjudicated mentally defective
    are denied firearms purchases.
        With a meaningful investment of $50 million for NARIP in
    fiscal year 2014, we hope other states will follow these
    examples and help contribute to an effective national
    background screening system for firearms purchases.
        Our second recommendation to the subcommittee is to enhance
    criminal history records with funding for NCHIP. Unlike NARIP,
    all states qualify for NCHIP funding. As such, $25 million in
    NCHIP funding will ensure all states can access funds to
    enhance and contribute their criminal history records to the
    national systems.
        Georgia, for example, does not qualify for funding under
    NARIP. However, the State has actively used NCHIP to improve
    the quality of the State's criminal history information.
        Mr. Chairman, in your home State of Virginia with the NCHIP
    funding, the state police established electronic access to
    criminal history records on-site at gun shows preventing the
    transfer of firearms to prohibited persons.
        Mr. Chairman, we recognize the great financial challenges
    facing our Nation and the Congress. And we thank the
    subcommittee for its support over the years despite these
    challenges. However, the need for meaningful investment in our
    public safety decision-making infrastructure has never been
    more critical.
        On behalf of SEARCH and its governors' appointees, I thank
    you for your time.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you, Mr. Came. I appreciate it.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony.
        Mr. Kennedy. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Next is Henry Cagey, Lummi Indian Business
    Council.
        Mr. Cagey, your full statement will appear in the record.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                         LUMMI INDIAN BUSINESS COUNCIL

                                    WITNESS

    HENRY CAGEY, COUNCIL MEMBER
        Mr. Cagey. Thank you.
        Again, Mr. Chairman, my name is Henry Cagey. I am the
    former chairman of the Lummi Nation and also the council member
    for the Lummi Indian Business Council.
        You know, the Lummi Nation is located in the northwest
    corner of Washington State. You know, we have over 5,000
    members. We are signatories to the Point Elliott Treaty and we
    come here today to talk about some of the things that we have
    seen the committee do for us.
        The last time I was here, we were asking for support for
    our fishermen with the Department of Commerce on the salmon
    disaster. We did get help, so thank you very much, Mr.
    Chairman, for all the help you have done for our people.
        You know, we want to bring to your attention some of our
    directives for the committee and some of the things that we are
    facing with the Lummi Nation is incarceration. Incarceration,
    as you know, is still challenging for Indian people across the
    board.
        One of the things that we are doing for the tribe is that
    we are looking at alternative ways for restorative justice and
    working with our juveniles and, you know, creating different
    ways using our traditional values and our heritage.
        So some of the things we are seeing is we are going to, you
    know, come up with some shortfalls in our funding. One of the
    things in our testimony I want to bring to your attention is
    giving us more flexibility on the funding that we have. And
    flexibility is very important to the tribes as far as, you
    know, what we can do with the dollars.
        These reports that we deal with and the criteria that we
    use for the funding is very stringent at times. So one of the
    things we want the committee to begin to consider is different
    funding strategies and methods to work with the Indian people.
        We have 567 tribes across the country, all unique and all
    different in different ways. We cannot have a one size fits all
    for Indian people or governments.
        So, again, is that we want you to consider looking at
    creating some alternative methods. Perhaps maybe your committee
    that you are setting up in the next piece of legislation to
    include Indian people. So, again, is that we want you to
    consider these directives.
        The other part we want to bring to your attention in our
    testimony is the training Department of Justice. One of the
    things that we are seeing with the department is the
    understanding of Indian governments and Indian people.
        As you know, the Department of Justice has three people
    working for Indian Country and the bureau has probably about
    six or seven hundred just here in D.C.
        The report was given to you folks in 1997 to look at
    alternative ways to combine justice services with the
    Department of Bureau and the Department of Justice and that
    report was never acted upon for one reason or another. There is
    a recommendation to combine enforcement services and court
    services that you may want to reconsider.
        So, again, Mr. Chairman, is that the flexibility is
    important to us. We do have 24 years of experience with self-
    government and so we are very open to recommendations to you
    and the committee to look at ways to work with the tribal
    government across the country.
        Again, thank you very much.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        Well, we will look at that too. And when we put the panel
    together, maybe we should look at the incarceration with regard
    to that issue too.
        But thank you for bringing that to our attention.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. I agree, and thank you for your testimony, sir.
        Mr. Cagey. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Our next witness will be George Thurman at Sac
    and Fox Nation.
        Mr. Thurman, welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                               SAC AND FOX NATION

                                    WITNESS

    GEORGE THURMAN, PRINCIPAL CHIEF
        Mr. Thurman. Good morning. I want to thank you for giving
    the Sac and Fox Nation the opportunity to present testimony
    before this committee today.
        And we want to thank you for the dedication, your
    dedication to the Indian programs. And I am here to
    specifically submit a tribal specific budget request in the
    amount of $4.8 million to fully fund the Sac and Fox Nation
    Juvenile Detention Center.
        We are located in central Oklahoma. We are a tribe of about
    4,000 of which 2,600 live within the State. We are proud to say
    that we are the tribe that Jim Thorpe came from and we are
    right----
        Mr. Wolf. Jim Thorpe from Pennsylvania.
        Mr. Thurman. I am sorry, sir.
        Mr. Wolf. Jim Thorpe who lived in Pennsylvania and went on
    to the Olympics.
        Mr. Thurman. He never lived in Pennsylvania, but that is a
    different story. We are right in----
        Mr. Wolf. From the movie I saw, he lived in Pennsylvania.
        Mr. Thurman. Don't believe everything you see on TV because
    they on that point were trying to repatriate in court and bring
    his body back to Oklahoma for proper burial.
        Mr. Wolf. There is the man to talk to right there.
        Mr. Thurman. Okay. But this----
        Mr. Wolf. Was he ever returned the medals? I thought they
    were returned; were they not?
        Mr. Thurman. They were returned, finally returned. The
    family fought forever and finally got them.
        Mr. Wolf. Burt Lancaster played the role. It was a movie.
    Actually, it made me angry that they took them. And now I see
    these Olympic stars are just making--and they took it away. But
    I did think that they did return them.
        Mr. Thurman. Yeah. Okay. And the passage of Tribal Law and
    Order Act was applauded by the Sac and Fox Nation because we
    saw this as an opportunity for the Federal Government to
    finally fulfill the commitment to the nation and fully fund our
    juvenile detention center.
        In 1994, we opened the doors to our juvenile detention
    center. After years of planning and construction, that was made
    possible by funding from the Department of Interior Bureau of
    Indian Affairs.
        This juvenile detention center is the first juvenile
    facility designed for American Indians, Alaskan Natives, as
    well as the first juvenile facility developed under Public Law
    104-72, the Self-Governments Demonstration project.
        The center is a full service, 24-hour juvenile detention
    center that provides basic detention services to all residents
    to ensure their health, safety, and welfare, provides programs
    tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients.
        These programs include behavioral management, substance
    abuse, spiritual, cultural, self-esteem, arts and crafts,
    health and fitness, horticulture, nutrition, life skills,
    counseling and educational programs.
        The 39 tribes including the southern plains region which
    covers Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas will support the juvenile
    detention center, but due to under-funding and staffing
    shortages, the center cannot accommodate the detention needs of
    the regional tribes.
        In fiscal year 2013, then-Assistant Secretary Larry Echo
    Hawk requested $6.5 million for detention correction. We take
    great exception to this request inasmuch as the Department of
    Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs has never provided the full
    funding that was committed for the appropriation planning and
    construction process of the juvenile detention center.
        This is the year 2013. Opened the doors in 1994. Nineteen
    years we have been waiting and have never had that full
    commitment of full funding yet.
        The Sac and Fox Nation, due to the failure of full funding
    commitment by federal officials not being honored, has had to
    utilize funds that could have been used for other social
    service needs. We are committed to working with the Federal
    Government in an effort to help them fulfill their financial
    commitment.
        With the promise of full funding realized, the juvenile
    detention center will be ready, willing, and able to meet the
    needs of tribes who need our help in guiding their children
    towards a successful future while providing a culturally and
    spiritually sensitive environment.
        However, the needs of these tribes and children we serve
    will continue to be unmet as long as new facilities continue to
    be funded and constructed without funding for operations.
        So there is an opportunity for you as the executive branch
    of the United States of America to work through the Sac and Fox
    Nation to improve the lives of those children that have made
    poor choices. These choices are usually based on the absence of
    guidance, culture, and discipline.
        Sac and Fox Nation center is committed to the
    rehabilitation of our native children insomuch despite the lack
    of funding.
        The juvenile detention center offers each juvenile located
    there an opportunity to receive continuing education through
    our local high school. The students are afforded everything
    accompanying a public school including a graduation ceremony if
    they reach state requirements.
        About two years ago, we had one young lady that did
    graduate there and I was a part of that ceremony that helped
    provide a diploma to her.
        The possibilities are endless but unrealized because
    despite the use of tribal funds and various grants, the funding
    is inadequate to operate the facility. Therefore, the Sac & Fox
    Nation is requesting that the Federal Government recommit the
    funding for the juvenile detention center.
        Thank you.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.034

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.035

        Mr. Wolf. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your testimony. I
    appreciate it.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you very much for your testimony, and I
    am sure we will get a chance to talk about it.
        Mr. Wolf. Katie Monroe, Innocence Project.
        There are going to be a series of votes, but what we are
    going to do is keep this going, so one of us will stay here.
        So welcome.
        Ms. Monroe. Okay.
        Mr. Wolf. Your full statement will appear in the record.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                    NATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS, INNOCENCE PROJECT

                                    WITNESS

    KATIE MONROE, SENIOR ADVOCATE
        Ms. Monroe. Wonderful. Thank you so much for allowing me to
    testify this morning.
        On behalf of the Innocence Project, I would like to
    respectfully request the following funding for DOJ programs in
    fiscal year 2014, $3 million for Wrongful Conviction Review and
    Capital Litigation Improvement program, $4 million for Kirk
    Bloodsworth Post Conviction DNA Testing program, $12 million
    for the Paul Coverdell Forensic Sciences Improvement Grant
    program, sufficient funding to support the newly formed Joint
    DOJ-National Institute of Standards and Technology National
    Commission on Forensic Science.
        Freeing innocent people from prison and preventing wrongful
    convictions greatly benefits public safety. Every time that we
    identify a wrongful conviction, it gives us the opportunity to
    identify the true perpetrator of that crime. And, in fact, in
    almost half of the 300 DNA exonerations to date, we have been
    able to identify that actual perpetrator and bring justice to
    the crime victim.
        Unfortunately, during the time that those perpetrators were
    not apprehended, they went on to commit additional crimes while
    the innocent person was in prison.
        Federal innocence programs are deeply important to this
    work because they provide the critical resources to identify
    and free the wrongly convicted and they provide resources that
    allow for reforms that prevent wrongful convictions meaning
    that we improve the accuracy of criminal investigations,
    strengthen criminal prosecutions, and create a stronger,
    fairer, more accurate system that provides true justice to
    crime victims.
        To date, 303 individuals have been exonerated by DNA
    evidence in the United States including 18 of whom spent time
    on death row. These individuals spent on average more than 13
    years each in prison and a combined number of more than 3,000
    years wrongly imprisoned.
        I have been working on innocence cases now for almost 20
    years in a variety of capacities both with the Mid-Atlantic
    Innocence Project and the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center. It
    started actually with the case of my mother who was wrongly
    convicted in 1992. And because at the time there were no
    Innocence organizations available to help us, my family and I
    had to take on the long legal battle to free her which took 12
    years.
        That experience exposed me to the deeply profoundly acute
    need for expert attention and resources of post conviction
    claims of innocence. Funding for the Wrongful Conviction Review
    program has provided these resources in cases all across the
    country, especially at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project where
    I am a former board member.
        That funding actually served to exonerate three individuals
    from Virginia in just the last two years, Gary Diamond who was
    exonerated just the week before last after five years wrongly
    imprisoned, Michael Hash who spent more than 12 years
    imprisoned in Virginia, and Thomas Haynesworth who spent 27
    years wrongly imprisoned in Virginia.
        In addition to these cases, the Bloodsworth Post Conviction
    DNA Testing program paid for the DNA testing that took place in
    both Mr. Haynesworth and Mr. Diamond's cases as well as for
    testing in Calvin Cunningham's case who is another exoneree
    from Virginia.
        And even better, in the Haynesworth case, that same testing
    identified the actual perpetrator so we could close that case
    and bring justice to the crime victim.
        It is important to note that the Bloodsworth program in
    particular, those funds go to state agencies which allow them
    to collaborate then with other organizations including
    Innocence network organizations in resolving these claims of
    innocence and allowing for that resolution to happen more
    quickly.
        That was the case in Mr. Haynesworth's case where his
    attorneys worked together with Attorney General Cuccinelli to
    petition for his exoneration and writ of actual innocence.
        In my current role as senior advocate for national
    partnerships at the Innocence Project, I focus on policies and
    programs to achieve reforms, for example, the Coverdell
    Forensic Sciences Improvement Grant which provides processing
    of vital forensic evidence and also oversight for independent
    government investigation, both of which improve the accuracy of
    forensic evidence and investigations and prosecutions.
        And above and beyond these existing programs, the Innocence
    Project just wants to say that it is very happy and supportive
    of the recent establishment of Joint DoJ and NIST National
    Commission on Forensic Science and we would ask for sufficient
    funding to support that work.
        Thank you very much for allowing me to testify this
    morning, and I am happy to answer questions.
        [The information follows:]

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        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.040

        Mr. Wolf. Thank you, and I appreciate the good work you do.
    Most of them will be funded in the bill that we are offering.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. I am quite aware of your work and I think it is
    a tribute to our country that people like yourselves would take
    the time and effort beyond your own family circumstance to help
    others similarly situation.
        Thank you.
        Ms. Monroe. Thank you. We appreciate your support.
        Mr. Wolf. Olivia Eudaly with Big Brothers Big--excuse me.
    Ann Harkins, National Crime Prevention Council. Excuse me. I--
    --
        Ms. Eudaly. No problem.
        Mr. Wolf. Your full testimony will appear in the record.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                       NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL

                                    WITNESS

    ANN HARKINS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
        Ms. Harkins. Thank you, Chairman Wolf and Ranking Member
    Fattah--Congressman Harris, thank you for being here--and the
    opportunity to testify before the subcommittee regarding fiscal
    year 2014 funding for the Department of Justice's grant
    programs.
        I am Ann Harkins, president of the National Crime
    Prevention Council, and in CPC is the home of McGruff, the
    crime dog.
        In this coming fiscal year, we respectfully urge the
    subcommittee to appropriate $25 million for the Byrne Memorial
    Competitive Grants program and $15 million for the Economic
    High Technology and Cyber Crime Prevention program.
        NCPC works closely with state and local law enforcement and
    their national organizations to anticipate and respond to
    persistent crime challenges, emerging crime trends, and the
    changing crime prevention needs of communities nationwide.
        We have four core competencies, public education, training,
    convening stakeholders to build crime prevention into
    communities and programs.
        Through a Byrne competitive grant, the National Crime
    Prevention Council is working with the Department of Justice
    and a number of other partners to conduct a public education
    campaign to address the dangerous and costly problem of
    intellectual property crime. Our goal is to reduce demand for
    counterfeit and pirated products that pose a threat to public
    health and safety as well as to our economy.
        We are working on several other projects to help people
    protect themselves, particularly from fraud.
        On April 10th, NCPC will host a virtual conference for
    consumers and organizations that support them in avoiding and
    recovering from mortgage fraud.
        We have solid school safety programs from kindergarten
    through university. We are tailoring crime prevention
    information to the overlooked population of people ages 18-24.
        On the other end of the spectrum, we are providing
    practical, ready to use resources on crimes against senior
    citizens. An alarming number of seniors are physically,
    emotionally, sexually, or financial abused frequently by people
    they trust. These are crimes we can and should prevent.
        Why the National Crime Prevention Council? Because crime
    extracts a significant financial cost, approximately $3.2
    trillion per year borne by victims, their families, employers,
    communities, and taxpayers.
        In 2011, governments at all levels spent more than $236
    billion for police protection, correctional facilities, and
    legal and judicial costs. Corrections alone cost $81 billion
    annually.
        In 2010, violent crimes, murder, rape, assault, and robbery
    cost Americans $42 billion. In 2011, consumers lost an
    estimated $1.5 billion to fraud. There is also an unknowable
    opportunity cost both financial and social.
        All of these costs have been trending upward and in the
    present economy, we can ill afford them. That is why your
    investment in crime prevention is so important. It is cost
    effective. It reduces the need for government spending on
    intervention, treatment, enforcement, and incarceration.
        That is why we are asking you to continue your investment
    with $25 million in fiscal year 2014 for the Byrne Competitive
    Grant program and to continue your commitment with a $15
    million investment in high technology and cyber crime.
        Thank you again for the opportunity to be here today. And
    on a personal note, I want to thank Mr. Wolf and Mr. Fattah.
    Both of your staffs, committee and personnel, are just
    terrific. So thank you for the high quality you bring to this
    work.
        The National Crime Prevention Council is proud to have
    worked with Congress, the Department of Justice, state and
    local law enforcement, and other agencies. As you continue your
    work to prevent crime, please consider NCPC and McGruff as your
    active partners in empowering citizens and working with local
    law enforcement to build safer communities.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Fattah [presiding]. Thank you, and thank McGruff, the
    crime dog.
        We have a lot going on here, votes on the floor, but we are
    going to continue the hearing and me and the chairman will
    alternate and Dr. Harris, I am sure, too, between going down to
    the floor and so on. But it is no disrespect to any testimony
    that is taking place. And we do have the written testimony and
    excellent staff.
        Thank you.
        Ms. Harkins. And we appreciate you very much.
        Mr. Wolf [presiding]. Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                      BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF AMERICA

                                    WITNESS

    OLIVIA EUDALY, VICE PRESIDENT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
        Ms. Eudaly. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking
    Member Fattah and Mr. Culberson from my home state and Dr.
    Harris.
        It is a privilege to be here with you today. We are
    indebted and grateful to you for your wisdom and sensitivity
    toward youth issues that you have shown over the many years.
    And we are extremely grateful at Big Brothers Big Sisters.
        We know that you have confidence and intentionality and
    that you are willing to put prevention money into helping kids
    stay out of trouble, high risk kids, and that is happening
    through your funding through OJJDP.
        I come today as an advocate for the OJJDP Youth Mentoring
    Grants program, but also as a teacher, a community activist,
    and a firm believer in the transformative power of mentoring.
        If I had the time this morning, I would share with you my
    own personal story as a high school teacher and a young senior
    who was only a few months from graduation, a promising young
    man, an intelligent young man, who got in with the wrong crowd
    and robbed a local fast food store, killed two employees, and
    is now serving a life sentence.
        It is for that reason I am in this work and I know
    firsthand the absolute crucial necessity of putting a caring
    adult in the life of at risk kids. And I know full well and I
    understand that it, in fact, is a national security issue, as
    Mr. Fattah is beautifully presenting it.
        And that is where the young mentoring grants through OJJDP
    come into play. They have allowed Big Brothers Big Sisters to
    expand mentoring programs to America's under-served youth to
    break the chain of events in the lives of kids who are at risk.
        Youth mentoring grants are competitively awarded to a
    variety of nonprofits that serve to reduce youth interaction
    with the juvenile justice system.
        As you are aware, grantees of the YMG provide youth
    mentoring services to at risk and high risk youth under 18
    years of age with the goal of reducing juvenile delinquency,
    drug abuse, truancy, and other problem behaviors and high risk
    behaviors.
        As one of those grantees, Big Brothers Big Sisters, it is
    important for you to know that we are the only national
    evidence-based, one-to-one mentoring program with measurable
    outcomes in the country.
        Since 2009, CJS funds through OJJDP have provided Big
    Brothers Big Sisters with the opportunity to support over
    35,000 youth in one-to-one mentoring relationships.
        Having exceeded our goal, our original goal of 30,500, we
    respectfully request that CJS continue to fund the youth
    mentoring grants and to do so at a rate of $90 million during
    fiscal year 2014.
        Across our 355 local agencies, Big Brothers Big Sisters'
    mentors meet with their matches at least three times a month
    for three to five hours for a maximum of one hour. The
    program's hallmark is the supervision of the match relationship
    which includes regular scheduled visits and phone conversations
    among the mentor, the parent, and the child supervised by the
    caseworker.
        The Big Brothers Big Sisters model incorporates all leading
    best practices and is effective at producing youth outcomes.
        Research has shown that kids who are matched with a big
    brother or big sister are less likely to use drugs, less likely
    to use alcohol, less likely to skip school, less likely to
    bully. They have better feelings of self-worth and they have
    higher performance in school.
        It is a given that youth who have less drug use, less
    alcohol use, less truancy, and better academic performance are
    less likely to be involved in the criminal justice system. And
    so we have what we call in our world prevention.
        Big Brothers Big Sisters exceeded its goal and we ask you
    to fund us, fund the youth mentoring grant at $90 million in
    the coming fiscal year 2014.
        And we thank you, we thank you for your wisdom and your
    sensitivity to these issues.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much for your testimony.
        I have no questions.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your work.
        And the chairman is being modest in the bill that we are
    getting ready to pass on the floor. The only area of increase
    is in youth mentoring.
        Ms. Eudaly. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Fattah. We have $88 million and the Senate had a much
    lower number. But because of the process that the chairman
    engaged in, we were very successful.
        And so thank you and we appreciate your work.
        Ms. Eudaly. We thank you so much.
        Mr. Wolf. And Mr. Fattah just so you know.
        Ms. Eudaly. We thank you so much. We thank you so much.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you----
        Ms. Eudaly. Thank you.
        Mr. Fattah [continuing]. For all the sacrifice and hard
    work.
        Ms. Eudaly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Our next witness will be David Bean, Puyallup
    Tribe of Washington.
        Your full statement will appear in the record.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                          PUYALLUP TRIBE OF WASHINGTON

                                    WITNESS

    DAVID Z. BEAN, TRIBAL COUNCILMAN
        Mr. Bean. Thank you.
        Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Fattah, members of the
    committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony
    on fiscal year 2014 Appropriations for tribal programs within
    the Department of Justice.
        My name is David Bean, I am a council member for the
    Puyallup Tribe of Indians located in the State of Washington. I
    send the regards of my chairman, Herman Dillon, Sr. who was not
    able to be here with us today.
        Although the President's fiscal year 2014 budget has not
    yet been released, we remain optimistic that Congress and the
    Administration will come to terms on broader budgetary issues
    and that the fiscal year 2014 budget will find essential
    justice of department programs important to Indian tribes and
    that is commensurate with our well-documented needs. We remain
    committed to working with Congress to this end.
        The Puyallup Tribe's first priority is insuring the safety
    and security of our community. We appreciate the efforts of the
    subcommittee, we raise our hands to you and thank you for all
    that you have done in your continued funding of trial programs
    within the following offices of the Department of Justice.
        The Office of Justice Programs, the Office of Community
    Oriented Policing Services, and the Office on Violence Against
    Women.
        Last year the Department of Justice proposed to provide for
    a seven percent tribal set aside for all discretionary OJP
    programs to address Indian country public safety and criminal
    justice needs.
        The Puyallup Tribe again joins with the National Congress
    of American Indians and other tribes in urging Congress to
    include the seven percent trial set aside in fiscal year 2014
    bill language.
        In a recent report the Department of Interior estimated
    that an $8.4 billion need over the next ten years exists in
    order to bring tribal and Bureau of Indian Affair detention
    centers up to current standards.
        To address this legal request at a minimum $30 million
    would be appropriated for the detention facilities and
    construction in the country programs.
        The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services fiscal
    year 2013 budget request also includes $286 million for COPS
    programs. The tribe generally supports this request, but we
    noted that the demonstrated need for additional law enforcement
    personnel in Indian country alone is $42 million which is three
    times more--nearly three times more than the $15 million
    specifically included for hiring tribal law enforcement
    officers.
        The tribe again requests the fiscal year 2014 bill language
    including $42 million for additional law officers in Indian
    country to address this serious shortfall of law enforcement
    personnel.
        The fiscal year 2014 budget also provided $20 million for
    the COPS tribal resource grant program. While the tribe
    supports this increase of funds to the necessary law
    enforcement resources, we noted that in fact $40 million is
    needed to sufficiently fund the tribal resources grant program.
        If our tribe in Indian country in general is to live in
    safety and focus on health, education, and economic
    development, then our law enforcement officers must have the
    necessary equipment to adequately fulfill their
    responsibilities.
        In the Office on Violence Against Women, the fiscal year
    2014 budget requested $412 million for the Office on Violence
    Against Women, including $500,000 for the Indian country sexual
    assault clearinghouse.
        The tribe has supported these requests in the past and we
    continue to do so today. The tribe also joins with other tribes
    and native women across the nation in commending Congress and
    the administration on the recent reauthorization of the
    Violence Against Women Act.
        We request that the fiscal year 2014 bill language include
    requisite funding for additional resources to tribal justice
    departments to help them exercise this inherent authority. This
    additional funding will be absolutely critical to a successful
    implementation of the law.
        And finally the tribe's sincere hope is that the fiscal
    year 2014 bill language would render the drastic cuts in fiscal
    year 2013 appropriations implemented under the sequestrum.
        The across-the-board five percent cuts to already under-
    funded programs will have devastating impacts on Indian country
    and reverse or delay tribal efforts to improve our economies
    and the health and well being of our members.
        I thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony. I am going to
    turn the proceedings over to my distinguished colleague.
        Mr. Culberson. [Presiding] Thank you. Thank you, sir, for
    your testimony.
        We have this vote going on so we are going to be rotating
    sort of back and forth. Appreciate it.
        I just wanted to ask real quickly. Your police force, it
    looks like within the jurisdiction of Tacoma----
        Mr. Bean. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Culberson [continuing]. Washington?
        Mr. Bean. Yes.
        Mr. Culberson. In the--anyone that commits a crime within
    the reservation is--are they prosecuted under state and local
    law in Washington?
        Mr. Bean. Actually, yeah, we have agreements whereby our
    officers are deputized, cross-deputized with the county and
    city and any call--service call that is made whether it be
    native or non-native we are able to fully service the call. In
    the case of a non-native we will take them to the county jail
    and prosecute.
        Mr. Culberson. The reservation itself is essentially a part
    of the municipality of Tacoma? Are you like----
        Mr. Bean. The city of Tacoma--our reservation encompasses
    the City of Tacoma as well as the City of Fife and Pierce
    County and----
        Mr. Culberson. Okay.
        Mr. Bean [continuing]. Several other small cities.
        Mr. Culberson. I am trying to get a handle on jurisdiction
    over criminal cases.
        Mr. Bean. With our natives? The jurisdiction lies within
    the tribe. Non-natives we take them to the county.
        Mr. Culberson. Oh, okay.
        Mr. Bean. The county court for prosecution.
        Mr. Culberson. Okay. And then the police department you say
    there is only two that are paid for with federal funds, two of
    the 29 are funded with federal money the other 27 are funded
    how?
        Mr. Bean. Out of our own tribal resources from our own tax
    revenues.
        Mr. Culberson. Yeah. Collect a property tax I guess?
        Mr. Bean. Fuel tax, liquor tax, tobacco tax.
        Mr. Culberson. Okay. Okay. And you have your own I guess
    court system too, kind of like basically you are your own
    independent local government; is that correct?
        Mr. Bean. We do have our own justice system, we have a
    correctional facility.
        Mr. Culberson. Okay. And the federal government then only
    provides a thin slice of your funding. You are mostly supported
    with local revenue.
        Mr. Bean. Ten percent of your departmental cost for public
    safety is provided by the federal government, the other----
        Mr. Culberson. Okay. Ten percent.
        Mr. Bean. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Culberson. Okay. The only reason I ask is you know we
    are living on borrowed money. All the money we are spending
    today you would literally shut down the entire federal
    government, and----
        Mr. Bean. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Culberson [continuing]. Basically all but $185 billion
    of all the revenue coming into the federal government goes to
    pay Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, interest on the debt,
    and veterans' benefits. So we are living on money borrowed from
    our kids.
        So anyway, thank you very, very much.
        Mr. Bean. Thank you.
        Mr. Culberson. And we will do all we can obviously to
    protect funding for all these important programs, but we are
    facing hard times financially.
        Thank you, sir.
        Mr. Bean. Thank you, sir.
        Mr. Culberson. And thank you very much.
        And next Jim Bueermann of the Police Foundation. Thank you
    very much.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                               POLICE FOUNDATION

                                    WITNESS

    JIM BUEERMANN, PRESIDENT
        Mr. Bueermann. Good morning, Mr. Culberson. Thank you for
    this opportunity to testify before your subcommittee today
    about the Police Foundation and the discipline of evidence-
    based policing.
        As you mentioned my name is Jim Bueermann, and I am the
    president of the Police Foundation, America's oldest, non-
    partisan and non-profit police research organization.
        We are based in Washington, and our mission is to advance
    policing through innovation and science.
        I spent 33 years as a police officer in Redlands,
    California, the last 13 as the chief of police and director of
    housing, recreation, and senior services.
        I was fortunate to lead a department deeply rooted in the
    use of the best available science to drive its policing
    strategies and thereby giving local taxpayers the highest
    possible return on their investment and public safety.
        We experience great community support for this approach as
    well as national recognition for our use of evidence-based
    approaches to controlling crime and disorder.
        In 1970 the leadership of the Ford Foundation, believing
    that the police needed to use rigorous science to become more
    effective in controlling crime and disorder, created the Police
    Foundation, and for more than 40 years we have produced some of
    the country's most important research to help police officers
    better protect their communities.
        We have established and we refined the capacity to define,
    design, conduct, and evaluate controlled experiments in
    evaluation research to improve the quality of policing.
        Our goals are twofold.
        First we conduct rigorous scientific research that produces
    relevant results that can be directly applied to policing
    policy or practice.
        Our research is designed to address the questions,
    challenges, and problems faced by contemporary policing
    agencies.
        And second, we act as a translational agent to move
    existing research from theory into practice. We strive to
    translate the larger world of scientific research into
    actionable information for law enforcement leaders and policy
    makers as your subcommittee provides funding for law
    enforcement support and research programs in the Department of
    Justice.
        My purpose today is to share with you some of our thinking
    on emerging national issues.
        I am not here seeking funding for the Police Foundation,
    but I would like to extend an invitation to the members and
    staff of the subcommittee to use us as a resource as you
    develop and fund policing research programs in the future.
        Decreases in local funding for public safety mean that
    local governments cannot support an ever increasing number of
    police officers or in many cases even maintain the status quo.
    Therefore police chiefs and sheriffs must shift their attention
    to more efficient and effective strategies generated from well-
    designed scientific examination of what works to control crime
    and disorder. That model is called evidence-based policing, and
    it represents the field's most powerful force for change.
        Evidence-based policing offers a practical solution to the
    challenge of balancing public safety, available funds, and
    taxpayer expectations. It blends the science of controlling
    crime and disorder with the principles of community policing
    and problem solving. It helps communities focus on meaningful,
    achievable, and measurable public safety outcomes. And it can
    be implemented without straining budgets, disrupting police
    organizations, or offending community members, and it can help
    police departments strengthen their legitimacy with the
    communities they serve.
        The following are just a few examples of the areas in which
    we believe greater police-related research is justified.
        The role of the police in helping prevent mental health-
    related gun violence, policing on school campuses, police
    legitimacy, policing in prisoner reentry and drug courts, the
    role of the police in wrongful convictions, officer safety and
    wellness, preventable error in policing, the police use of
    unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile device technologies, and
    additive manufacturing in the use of so-called 3D printers.
        As the subcommittee develops future legislation I urge you
    to investigate, promote, and enhance the use of evidence-based
    policing, research, and strategies.
        Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to testify today
    about the foundation and how its work can leverage taxpayer
    investments to improve public safety outcomes.
        And more importantly I thank you for your service to our
    great Nation.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf [presiding]. Thank you very much for your
    testimony.
        Mr. Bueermann. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Gary----
        Mr. Culberson. Can I ask----
        Mr. Wolf. Sure. Go ahead. Go ahead.
        Mr. Culberson. You are funded entirely with foundation
    grants.
        Mr. Bueermann. And we have an endowment, the Ford
    Foundation's endowment so it keeps us running today.
        Mr. Culberson. That is terrific. It is always marvelous to
    have someone come up, Mr. Chairman, that is not asking for
    federal money.
        Thank you.
        Mr. Bueermann. It is a pleasure. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. It is unusual.
        Gary Mills, American Federation of Government Employees.
    Your statements will appear in the record. Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                  AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES

                                    WITNESS

    GARY MILLS, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE COORDINATOR, COUNCIL OF PRISON LOCALS
        C-33
        Mr. Mills. Good morning, Chairman Wolf, Congressman
    Culberson, my name Gary Mills, I am the national legislative
    coordinator for the council of prisons locals, we are
    affiliated with the American Federation of Government Employees
    and we represent the correctional workers for the Federal
    Bureau of Prisons.
        In February of this year the Bureau of Prisons realized our
    worst nightmare. We had a correctional officer who was killed
    in the line of duty at USP Canaan in Pennsylvania. It was
    Officer Eric Williams, 34 years old, and he was brutally
    stabbed to death by an inmate with a homemade weapon.
        The Bureau of Prisons, the entire Bureau of Prisons family
    basically is heartbroken. It is literally like we lost a member
    of the family and it is hard to explain that. It is someone
    most of us never met, never would have met, but it hurts that
    bad. Along with that we have gained a newfound resolve to do
    whatever possible we can to try and prevent this from occurring
    again.
        So on behalf of over the 36,000 federal correctional
    workers at the Bureau of Prisons we would ask the subcommittee
    to provide us $7,007,272,000 in fiscal year 2014 funding for
    BOP salaries and expenses. That allows us to hire enough
    additional correctional workers to achieve a 95 percent
    staffing level at existing BOP-operated institutions.
        This $7 billion plus figure assumes a 2013 fiscal year
    funding level of $6,820,217,000 and a $187,055,000 increase in
    2014.
        We would also ask that the Bureau of Prisons salaries and
    expenses account be exempt from sequestration provisions of the
    2011 Budget Control Act.
        Our BOP expenses are effectively mandatory, not
    discretionary, and we would ask that the Bureau of Prisons be
    directed to expand its pilot program for pepper spray to be
    issued to all staff working in all our 117 correctional
    facilities for routine carry, no more than any dare I say a
    mall cop. I have pepper spray when I jog, letter carriers carry
    it. We are asking it just solely for the protection of our
    officers inside the institutions.
        Nearly 218,000 prison inmates are in the Bureau of Prisons
    today. That is up from 25,000 in 1980 and it rises. And 81
    percent of all these inmates are confined in BOP operated
    institutions, 19 percent are in managed residential reentry
    centers and private prisons.
        The number of federal correction workers that work in BOP-
    operated prisons however is failing to keep pace with the
    tremendous growth of prison inmate populations.
        As of December 13, 2013, the BOP-operated institutions were
    staffed at an 88 percent level as contrasted with the 95
    percent staffing levels in the mid 90s. This 88 percent
    staffing level is below the 90 percent staffing level that the
    BOP believes to be the minimum level for maintaining the safety
    and security of the Bureau of Prisons facilities.
        At the same time prison inmate overcrowding is an
    increasing problem at BOP institutions despite the activation
    of new prisons over the past few years. BOP-operated
    institutions at the end of fiscal year 2011 were operating 39
    percent above rated capacity overall with our high security
    facilities at about 55 percent overrated capacity.
        And we would ask for the anomaly to--I am sorry--for
    exemption from sequestration because although we got an
    increase in the budget with sequestration we would actually
    lose money and we are still dealing with a rising tide of
    inmates coming into the system.
        And lastly--I am sorry for my time--the pepper spray
    program is something that we have asked to be expanded. It was
    initially brought in for staff safety. All of our studies at
    the Bureau of Prisons conducted in the initial run of the
    pepper spray program showed significant lower rates in violence
    on inmate-on-inmate violence and inmate-on-staff violence.
        There is a video that we had brought to the Hill last month
    that showed an actual very effective use of pepper spray in
    Seattle, FDC SeaTac, where an inmate had grabbed an iron and
    charged towards a staff member. He had pepper spray, sprayed it
    in the direction of the inmate, the inmate covered his face and
    ran past the staff member, as a result the inmate nor to staff
    member was injured.
        I am sorry for my time. Thank you very much for this
    opportunity to testify.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you for your testimony, it is very
    powerful. We did approve reprogramming the other day for the
    Bureau of Prisons.
        Secondly, and Mr. Fattah and I are going to put in a bill
    for a national commission looking at the whole prison system.
        And on the pepper spray we will certainly take a look at
    it. Congressman Morgan Griffith has raised that issue with me,
    so what we will do is together we will call the Bureau of
    Prisons up together and we will talk to them.
        So we will----
        Mr. Mills. Greatly, greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony.
        Mr. Mills. Thank you, sir.
        Mr. Wolf. All right, next Davis Hansberger of Midwest Trade
    Adjustment Assistance Center.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                   MIDWEST TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE CENTER

                                    WITNESS

    DAVID HANSBERGER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
        Mr. Hansberger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman for the opportunity
    to testify before this committee, and thank you, Mr. Fattah,
    regarding appropriations for the TAA for firms program
    administered by EDA at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
        On behalf of thousands of small--is that on now? Okay. On
    behalf of small--thousands of small American manufacturers I
    want to thank you and the members of this committee for your
    past support of this critical program.
        My name is David Hansberger and I started working with the
    TAA for firms program in 1988, and since 2008 I have been the
    director of the Midwest Trade Adjustment Assistance Center.
        We respectfully request that Congress continue to
    appropriate $16 million in fiscal year 2014 for the TAA for
    firms program.
        Despite the small budget the program delivers a big impact
    and I would like to illustrate that with my remarks in three
    areas today.
        History, operations, and successes.
        The TAA for firms is focused on small to medium sized
    manufacturing companies that lost significant numbers of
    customers and sales due to lower priced imports, but these
    companies have not closed down, they have not moved their
    manufacturing overseas, they are staying in the U.S.
    communities and fighting for business.
        The TAA for firms helps these manufacturers to train
    workers, improve productivity, grow domestic, and export sales.
        Operationally program staff works with each individual
    company to establish their eligibility and then write a
    specialized business plan that looks at strengths, weaknesses,
    threats, and opportunities, and then specific projects are
    detailed and then implemented by independent private sector
    consultants and service providers, with the manufacturing firm
    paying half the bill and the program paying half the bill.
        This operational structure makes sure that the projects are
    carefully designed, reviewed, prioritized, and focused to
    deliver a positive and cost effective result.
        And the manufacturing companies have their own skin in the
    game because they have to pay half the bill too.
        Projects we cost share with our clients cover a wide range
    of needs and are all focused on expanding their customer base,
    growing sales, and making their product more efficiently.
        Examples of these projects include achieving recognized
    quality standards like ISO 9000, developing new products,
    updating websites for e-commerce, export development, and on
    and on.
        Firms adjust and generally leave the program within three
    to five years and the success has been very real.
        The success is documented by both a recent GAO study of
    performance and an Inspector General study of cost
    effectiveness.
        The IG found that the program has a very low overhead with
    82 percent of funds going to serve and benefit manufacturers,
    and GAO determined that companies in the program demonstrated a
    five percent growth in sales.
        Now, these companies turned around after a decline of 18
    percent in sales to that 5 percent growth, and GAO also found
    there is a statistical significance between participating in
    the program and making that turn around.
        This growth can be found in companies such as an Illinois
    die caster that has been rewarded the Precision Metal Forming
    Association training award and the Hitachi Pioneer award, both
    related to projects through the TAA for firms program, or a
    Pennsylvania company from the first district that makes
    industrial and scientific measuring equipment and worked with
    the program to update their website and attract more sales.
        So what we have here is a program that targets small
    manufacturers that were losing sales and shedding employees and
    turns them around into sales and employment growth within a few
    years at low cost.
        We hope TAA for firms will be viewed by Congress as
    separate and distinct from other trade adjustment assistance
    programs. The results are strong enough to stand independently
    in any format that Congress should see fit to define the
    program.
        TAA for firms is the model of a cost effective, flexible,
    and effective program that could work well or better on a
    broader scope.
        The consistent message is that the program works to grow
    small manufacturers in a cost effective way.
        While many are talking about the need to support small
    business, grow exports, and support manufacturing jobs, here is
    a program that does all three, and it does it in a cost
    effective model that is time tested and works well.
        Your support for level funding will certainly allow this
    work to continue and achieve the successful trends that are
    documented.
        Thank you very much for your time and attention and the
    opportunity to summarize this small but important program. I
    would be happy to answer any questions.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much, I appreciate your testimony.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. I appreciate the program and your work and
    thank you very much.
        Mr. Hansberger. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        Joe McKinney with the National Association of Development
    Organizations. Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

               NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS

                                    WITNESS

    JOE McKINNEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
        Mr. McKinney. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Your full statement will appear in the record.
        Mr. McKinney. Thank you.
        Chairman Wolf, ranking Member Fattah, thank you for taking
    time particularly on this hectic day to allow me to testify on
    the importance of including $257.5 million in funding for the
    U.S. Economic Development Administration for fiscal year 2014.
        My name is Joe McKinney and I am the executive director of
    the National Association of Development Organizations. We
    represent over 400 regional development organizations across
    the country.
        I am hear to speak to you today about the importance of EDA
    particularly in rural America.
        As the overall U.S. economy has struggled to recover from
    the great recession areas served by our members are
    particularly-- have felt acute impact. In these communities the
    loss of a relatively few number of jobs can have a devastating
    effect.
        I am well aware of the financial constraints faced by this
    subcommittee, the needs of all the agencies covered by your
    bill have important roles to play, and all are faced with the
    ongoing budgetary pressure.
        As you mentioned earlier today absent a grand bargain that
    comprehensively addresses tax in a time of reform I feel that
    domestic discretionary spending will continue to bear the brunt
    of debt reduction.
        While NADO was disappointed with the EDA's budget and
    proposed continuing resolution I believe EDA has demonstrated
    real results and that the agency can clearly show the benefits
    returning to the fiscal year 2012 funding level.
        Let me briefly discuss what makes EDA unique.
        As you know EDA is the only federal agency with the sole
    mission of fostering economic growth and creating high quality
    jobs.
        Planning grants are used to ensure a community has the
    necessary resources to attract new businesses, and the
    infrastructure grants ensure that new businesses have the
    primary public services needed to locate and expand.
        The economic development districts have conducted hundreds
    of successful projects and regions all across the nation.
        My complete statement has some of the examples of
    successful EDA grants and I urge members of the subcommittee to
    read that.
        I also want to share with you the critical importance of
    insuring that EDA's resources are focused on the programs used
    most often and most effectively by EDDs across the country.
        EDDs primary benefit from planning and infrastructure
    grants. Rural regions must rely on assistance from EDA to help
    provide the building blocks to spur economic growth, and we
    believe EDA grants should remain competitive and accessible to
    all rural regions without regard to population and unattainable
    match requirements.
        Funding opportunity should never be placed out of reach of
    communities that most desperately need assistance.
        In conclusion EDA grants have a critically important role
    in the lives of rural Americans. Without EDA grants these
    localities simply wouldn't be able to afford to provide basic
    planning services and infrastructure necessary to maintain a
    thriving community.
        The $36 million difference in EDA grants from fiscal year
    2012 budget to the proposed CR represent precious resources to
    rural America.
        As I mentioned earlier, these days every resource is
    precious for sure.
        My goal today has been to show how these additional funds
    for EDA will have a substantial impact on hundreds of small and
    rural communities across the Nation.
        The committee's report last year acknowledged that EDA has
    shifted away from traditional planning and infrastructure
    grants. NADO could not agree more with that statement.
        I firmly believe that if EDA continues its historic focus
    on economic planning and infrastructure grants rural
    communities and small cities will be able to leverage these
    grants and insure that today's generation of new workers do not
    have to relocate to find a good job.
        We look forward to working with you in the future and I
    thank you for the opportunity again to speak with you today and
    I would be happy to answer any questions.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Fattah. Well, let me thank you.
        EDA I think is the most important economic development
    agency we have in terms of reaching all communities and types
    of communities throughout the country. And I know not just in
    rural areas but in Philadelphia there was an EDA grant that
    helped establish a neighborhood campus of the community college
    up in northeast Philadelphia and it is very, very and vital
    funding.
        So thank you for your testimony today.
        I would make note that there was some discussion about
    whether this hearing should go forward today given all of the
    other activities here in the House, and the chairman determined
    that it would inconvenience so many people who have come to
    testify that we should proceed.
        So even though it seems a little disjointed that members
    have to come and go, this is--we have all of your testimony in
    the record and we appreciate it.
        Mr. McKinney. Thank you.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you.
        Mr. Culberson [presiding]. Tom Skalak from the University
    of Virginia. If you could turn your microphone on, sir, and
    turn your name. There you go. Very good. Thank you very much.
    Is it Dr. Skalak?
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                             UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

                                    WITNESS

    THOMAS C. SKALAK, VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH
        Mr. Skalak. Dr. Skalak.
        Mr. Culberson. Dr. Skalak. Thank you very much for being
    with us today and we look forward to your testimony. Your
    statement will be entered into the record in its entirety.
        Thank you, sir.
        Mr. Skalak. Thank you, Mr. Culberson and staff of Chairman
    Wolf and Mr. Fattah. It is good to be back this morning with
    you.
        I represent--good afternoon again, Mr. Wolf.
        Mr. Wolf [presiding]. Is this the guy, William and Mary?
        Mr. Skalak. Yes, Chairman Wolf, we consider that an
    excellent second choice. It is a pleasure to see you again.
        I represent the University of Virginia as the vice
    president for research.
        UVA urges the subcommittee to support the highest possible
    funding levels for federal science agencies in the fiscal year
    2014 budget, particularly NSF, space technology, science, and
    aeronautics programs at NASA, and the Economic Development
    Administration, EDA.
        Investments in these agencies help universities make
    discoveries at the frontiers of knowledge, engineer new
    technologies that solve national challenges, and power our
    innovation-based economy.
        But today I really want to tell you a personal story.
        Two summers ago I took my son, Scott, who was ten years
    old, we took him on a canoe trip down the Shenandoah River,
    which you may be familiar with, we paddled down the 13-mile
    stretch of that very historic river. We still run through
    several miles of wilderness area whether farms, there is no
    real civilization there, catching some fish, it was a very hot
    day, we had to dip our hats in the water to keep cool. It was
    about 100 degrees.
        And we came around a bend in the river and on the left-hand
    side on the bank we saw a nest with two bald eagles. One of
    them flew up into the air, the other one couldn't fly up into
    the air. At first we thought he was just protecting the nest,
    but he actually had an injured wing.
        So we had to pass on by because you are not allowed to
    interfere with the nests of eagles. And so we were hopeful that
    it would recover.
        We want back last summer and we saw as we came around the
    same bend the nest again and the two eagles were there. This
    time they both flew up over the tree line.
        As you can imagine, you know, we were happy to see that,
    and that is a sight that of course my son who was then 11 would
    probably never forget.
        So I am telling you this story because just like that eagle
    that took the time to heal and then fly up that is the state of
    our American economy right now.
        And you spoke earlier, Mr. Culberson about your grand
    children and paying our way forward for them. Well, we need the
    strength and resources to soar again also.
        Now last week I was with the vice president of an American
    Fortune 500 company and he said to me, America has the capital,
    the drive, and the creativity at a level that far surpasses any
    other nation in the world.
        In a report just last week issued, which I can send you by
    Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, reported through analysis
    that cash reserves in American corporations as a ratio to
    market cap of those same companies has never been higher than
    in the past 25 years.
        Now that cash is going to come off the sidelines in the
    future and it has to have a place to go. It needs to go into
    American innovation otherwise it won't. And the only way it
    will have American innovation to go into is through federal
    investments in innovation. It is the only way to instill the
    confidence that that cash will find a place for investments.
    Markets cannot accomplish that task.
        So I would like to thank you, the committee, Chairman Wolf
    in particular for your championship of the federal science
    agencies. I hope you will continue to support them and
    increases for the agencies, because this is the only way to
    create the new discoveries and the confidence needed for that
    cash to come off the sidelines and create long-term economic
    growth in America. It won't happen any other way, and your
    investments in these science agencies is what allows that to
    happen.
        Thank you very much.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Well, thank you, we will, and UVA is a great
    university. Two of my kids went there and please give my best
    to Teresa Sullivan your president, I think she does an
    outstanding job and thank you for your testimony.
        Where were you in the bend? Because the Shenandoah River
    much of it is in my district, where were you?
        Mr. Skalak. We were in the 13-mile stretch.
        Mr. Wolf. Where?
        Mr. Skalak. Between--lets see just west of Rock Fish Gap
    and then going--going down river.
        Mr. Wolf. But any way, welcome.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony and for your great
    work, and even though the chairman says it is a great
    university I think I have to agree even though we have a lot of
    great ones in Philadelphia, so----
        Mr. Skalak. Thomas Jefferson, yes, excellent.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Great. Thank you.
        Mr. Culberson. Please pass on to your colleagues that they
    have got no better friends than Chairman Wolf, Mr. Fattah, and
    this subcommittee when it comes to investing in the sciences,
    in NASA, and we all recognize how vital for the future that
    strategic investment is and we will be there. Even though we
    are living on borrowed money that is a priority we have to
    continue to fund.
        Thank you.
        Mr. Skalak. That money is critical for the future of our
    grandchildren. You bet.
        Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Wolf.
        [Pause]
        Mr. Wolf. Mr. Perry, welcome.
        Mr. Perry. Hi.
        Mr. Wolf. Welcome to the committee. Unfortunately we are
    running out of time, there is a four-minute time.
        Mr. Perry. Okay.
        Mr. Wolf. Your full statement will appear in the record.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DRUG COURT PROFESSIONALS

                                    WITNESS

    MATTHEW PERRY, AMBASSADOR OF DRUG COURTS
        Mr. Perry. Okay. Chairman Wolf, Ranking Member Fattah,
    distinguished members of the subcommittee, I am honored to
    appear before you today to discuss an issue that I have come to
    believe is the most important criminal justice reform of our
    lifetime. Drug courts.
        Last year the House of Representatives had the vision to
    increase funding for drug courts to $45 million at the
    Department of Justice as well as $4 million for veterans'
    treatment courts so that the men and women who have served this
    Nation receive the treatment they have earned.
        Today I am asking our incredible champions in the House to
    maintain $45 million for drug courts, $4 million for veterans'
    treatment courts in the fiscal year 2014 budget.
        This investment will generate immediate returns by any
    standard you choose to measure from unmatched cost savings
    stemming from reduced rearrests, law enforcement contracts, and
    court hearings to lives restored, families reunited, and
    communities rescued from the epidemic of drug abuse and crime.
        I know firsthand the personal and societal devastation
    caused by substance abuse. When I found recovery from
    prescription drug abuse I have dedicated myself to helps
    others.
        I realized that as a result of my addiction I have lived by
    life completely for myself for the first half of my life and
    found that the answers were coming in deciding that the second
    half of my life needed to be about service, about others. And
    this is precisely why I make it a priority to come to
    Washington, D.C. and meet with you about drug courts.
        Two years ago, I led a rally at the Capitol with hundreds
    of drug court professionals from across the country, we met
    with members of Congress and told them of the credible success
    of programs in their state.
        That same year I was honored to speak at a briefing with
    the House Committee on addiction, treatment, and recovery, and
    it was then that fellow actor Martin Sheen turned to me and
    said, Matthew, you are becoming an activist, and I said to him,
    Martin, thank you, I feel like an activist, and then I turned
    to a friend of mine and said, please go and look up that word
    because I don't know what it means. But I apparently am
    becoming one.
        So every time I visit the Nation's capital I am reminded of
    the outstanding leadership of this great body. So I am here
    today to speak to you once again about drug courts.
        Drug courts are the single most effective program for
    getting serious drug addicts into life-long recovery, putting
    them back to work, back in school, and back with their
    families.
        I have seen individuals mire in the deepest depths of
    addiction transformed by drug courts. I have spoken with
    veterans who after years of being unable to sleep without
    painkillers and alcohol are now healthy, law-abiding pillars of
    their community. I have met children whose families have been
    served because of drug court and only drug court.
        I have how much time?
        Mr. Wolf. Not much.
        Mr. Perry. I got about another page, but I will try to be
    very likable and charming.
        From saving money to saving lives, from eliminating racial
    disparities to protecting public safety, from cutting crime, to
    restoring families, for coming to the aid of our veterans, to
    stopping impaired drivers, drug courts are a budget solution
    that we cannot afford to cut.
        There are hundreds of other reasons, but for the sake of
    timing I will give you four of them.
        First drug courts reduce recidivism at a level unmatched by
    any other program by closely supervising participants and
    keeping them in treatment long enough to find permanent
    recovery. Drug courts are a stabilizing force on our criminal
    justice system. And this is an important fact.
        Approximately 75 percent of the people who complete drug
    court will never be arrested again. When drug court is
    unavailable due to budget costs roughly 80 percent of addicted
    offenders will reoffend and wind up right back before the
    judge.
        Second, drug courts save this country money. More research
    has been published on the effects of the courts than an
    virtually all other criminal justice programs combined. The
    facts are now known, drug courts have been found to save up to
    $13,000 for every individual they serve.
        Third, drug courts have stepped up to the growing number of
    veterans who face charges stemming from substance abuse to
    mental health issues.
        The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken an
    unprecedented toll on our men and women in uniform. While most
    return home strengthened by their service, far too many
    struggle in their effort to readjust to life outside the
    military.
        Often mental--very close to the end. Often mental health
    issues are compounded by substance abuse, family strife,
    unemployment, and homelessness ultimately leading to
    incarceration.
        With 30,000 soldiers expected to come home this year we
    cannot afford to cut the last line of defense between their
    healthy future and a life of mental anguish and self-
    medication.
        Finally, drug courts are being successfully implemented
    across the country in states like Texas and New York. Drug
    courts are reducing the prison population so much so that
    expensive prisons are closing their doors.
        In small towns like Somerset, Kentucky the drug court is
    helping to take back the community from the scourge of
    prescription drug abuse.
        Today over 2,700 drug courts in the United States annually
    serve 135,000 seriously addicted prison bound offenders.
        Every citizen benefits when one of these drug courts gets
    an addicted person clean and sober, pays taxes, and becomes a
    productive citizen.
        Now, we live of course in unique and uncertain economic
    times and there is no doubt that the decisions that you have to
    make are not easy, but given the overwhelming evidence of drug
    court success and the billions of dollars that have already
    been saved I hope that this is one decision that will be easy.
        I strongly urge the House of Representatives to maintain
    $45 million for drug courts at the Department of Justice and $4
    million for veterans' treatment courts.
        This is something that is doing the right thing and saves
    money. I don't think you can say that about too many things.
        So thank you for letting me talk here today.
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        Mr. Wolf. Well, thank you very much.
        One, I appreciate your testimony that you are willing to
    come forward and use your reputation and credibility and that
    is to your credit, so thank you.
        Secondly, the committee is very, very supportive of drug
    courts and I think you can count on that we will continue to
    fund it.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. And in the 1980s I helped create the drug
    courts in Pennsylvania, and I know of that great work has been
    done and I want to thank you for your personal testimony and
    support for this initiative, and I think that you have--and the
    chairman and this committee, people who are committed both for
    the drug courts and to the veterans' courts in terms of helping
    our veterans.
        And thank you very much.
        Mr. Perry. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Mr. Culberson.
        Mr. Culberson. Thank you--I am chairman of the military
    construction and Veterans' Administration Subcommittee on the
    Appropriations Committee and we do all that we can as well to
    help make sure that they are there for the veterans and deeply
    appreciate your personal testimony and just to reiterate the
    strong support that Congress and this committee has to this
    vital work.
        Thank you.
        Mr. Perry. Thank you guys. Great, thanks.
        Mr. Wolf. Mr. Keating? Go ahead.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                             UNITED STATES CONGRESS

                                    WITNESS

    HON. BILL KEATING, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH
        OF MASSACHUSETTS
        Mr. Keating. This is going to be--definitely when I change
    this thing there will be definitely a downgrade in pay as I put
    that over here. You know, did you ever feel like, you know, in
    a formal suit that, you know, in a black tie event your pair of
    brown shoes that is maybe--well, thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. But I am sure you are going to do well though.
        Mr. Keating. Well, I hope so, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Chairman, thank you, and Ranking Member Fattah, thank
    you, and members of the committee.
        You know, I am fortunate in my district as we all feel I
    think in our own districts to represent a beautiful coastline
    area and part of Massachusetts that is the south shore, the
    south coast, Cape Cod and the islands, and in our area,
    Martha's Vineyard in Nantucket, but in our area investments in
    fisheries management, costal restoration, regional ocean
    planning, competitive grant programs, and the critical science
    research makes a difference between a paycheck and a pink slip
    in our district.
        I would like to begin by urging my colleagues in the
    committee to work with me and my peers in providing emergency
    assistance for an economic disaster issued by the Department of
    Commence in September of last year for the northeast multi-
    species ground fish industry. They are virtually being
    eliminated right now. This is an unprecedented declaration by
    the Secretary in advance of the 2013 fishing season which
    begins in less than six weeks.
        Members of the committee have already received many appeals
    from my colleagues as well as from myself on this subject and
    the true impact of fisheries disasters on costal communities is
    incalculable.
        Fishermen from coast to coast will face an immediate and
    irreparable loss of livelihood if we are unable to provide them
    with the financial assistance to survive during the next
    fishing season. These are generations of families that have
    started small fishing boats.
        I thank you for your previous cooperation, hope that you
    will continue to work with me to provide this emergency
    funding.
        In recent years our fishing business has suffered due to
    inadequate data collection that dictates shares. We can and we
    must implement fair and effective fisheries management policies
    while targeting government abuse and inefficient waste.
        To that extent I encourage the committee to provide a
    robust funding for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric
    Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service.
        It is imperative that the National Marine Fisheries Service
    maintain the resources to increase the frequency and accuracy
    of these stock assessments that are affecting the livelihood of
    these fishermen, to invest in cooperative research with the
    industry, and to improve recreational fishing data collection
    programs.
        Another top priority for southeastern Massachusetts is
    finding the investments in ocean and coastal management and
    science.
        Massachusetts has set a national standard for
    implementation and comprehensive and proactive ocean and
    coastal management through our participation in the northeast
    regional ocean council. It is through regional ocean
    partnership grants that the commonwealth has been able to
    coordinate and navigate the complex resource management
    conflicts that arise from these promising new ocean usages.
        To this end I hope to see $10 million provided for the
    regional ocean partnership competitive grants program.
        As many of you all are familiar 2002 brought some of the
    most extreme and unprecedented climate events ever recorded. My
    district is just one example of many of the communities
    dependent on core habitat restoration and protection, programs
    that directly benefit these economies and are critical to
    restoring coastal estuary habitats.
        Thus it is imperative that we provide funding for NOAA's
    costal restoration programs, including the community-based
    restoration program, the estuary restoration program, the
    coastal and estuary land conservation program.
        To recite, there is an undeniable link between restoration
    and conservation efforts in costal communities like mine and
    the economy.
        Furthermore, before coming to Congress I served as a
    district attorney for 12 years, and one of my top concerns has
    always been the public safety, particularly during these times
    of fiscal uncertainty.
        And to that end I would like to request that the Staffing
    for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant programs
    be appropriated to match the authorization that we passed in
    December.
        In one of my cities, New Bedford fortunately the whole fire
    department being inadequately able to respond. In my
    neighboring town of Fall River where they had that--it is on
    oil mill town with oil soaked buildings and old, you know,
    types of inventories of buildings, not only commercially and
    through housing, and these people are in peril as a result of
    it.
        So it is critical for fire houses not only in my district
    by across the entire country, particularly in the communities I
    mentioned.
        New Bedford where the understaffed men and women are
    already serving the needs of multiple communities in the
    region.
        Surely we can find alternatives to stripping the backbone
    of our communities. Police officers, ambulance, but
    particularly with the SAFER grants fire departments of the
    resources that protect residents.
        This is an issue in which I have been deeply engaged and
    one I will continue to pursue through the appropriations
    process.
        Finally I would like to note that one of my first acts as a
    district attorney was to initiate a drug court discretionary
    grant program. I did that as a prosecutor.
        I strongly support funding for the drug court discretionary
    grant program which helps to develop treatment in during courts
    that integrate substance abuse, mandatory drug testing, and
    transitional services for non-violent substance abuse suspects.
        The American people understand this is the year of budget
    constraints, but my testimony not only reflects the priorities
    of my district in Massachusetts, but echoes the messages I have
    heard from across the country.
        We must insure that this budget incorporates effective
    funding decisions and encourages efficiencies but doesn't
    overlook the critical needs of Americans of all backgrounds.
        Once again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank you members of
    the committee for your time.
        I won't be available to sign autographs afterwards, but I
    do appreciate it.
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        Mr. Wolf. Well, I do have a request though.
        Mr. Keating. Okay.
        Mr. Wolf. No, my--thank you for your testimony.
        Mr. Keating. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. My wife is from Marble Head and I have a daughter
    who owns a house in Winthrop and a former person who worked on
    me is a Catholic priest, Roger Landry in Fall River. Do you
    know Roger?
        Mr. Keating. I know of the name, I don't know him.
        Mr. Wolf. He is a wonderful fellow. So would you call Roger
    when you go back there and look him up for me? That is all I
    wanted.
        Mr. Keating. I will call Roger and make sure he is aware of
    this committee's concern for the SAFER grants, for the fishing
    industry. But I will personally I will. I will.
        Mr. Wolf. Good. Because I have not seen him for a number of
    years and he was in the Vatican for a number of years and I
    understand he is now back. So I have not seen him, but if you
    can----
        Mr. Keating. Well, it is a great community with a lot of
    challenges, and I am sure he will serve it well.
        Mr. Wolf. And you have a great area.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony and we share your
    concern about a number of these programs.
        Thank you.
        Mr. Keating. No, thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Thanks so much.
        Mr. Keating. I appreciate it. Difficult times, difficult
    decisions, and I appreciate your efforts.
        Mr. Wolf. Sure. Thanks.
        Mr. Keating. Thanks.
        Mr. Wolf. The hearing will come to order.
        And we have this light. I apologize for it. You know
    everyone is limited to four minutes, but it is because people
    are out of town and so if you can--I mean, we are not going
    to--but if you can, we would appreciate it. Thank you.
        First witness of this panel is Jason Patlis, National
    Marine and Sanctuary Foundation. His whole statement will
    appear on the record.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                      NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY FOUNDATION

                                    WITNESS

    JASON PATLIS, PRESIDENT AND CEO
        Mr. Patlis. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking
    Member, members of the subcommittee.
        I realize I have got a tour following in the footsteps of
    Matthew Perry, but I will do my best.
        Mr. Wolf. I thought you were him.
        Mr. Patlis. My mother and my wife might agree with you, but
    I am not sure anybody else would.
        Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you this
    morning in support of a robust and capable National Marine
    Sanctuary System and a strong National Oceanic and Atmospheric
    Administration.
        My name is Jason Patlis. I am the president of the National
    Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and the National Marine
    Sanctuaries, as you well know, are the underwater compliment to
    our national parks on land. They represent our national
    heritage at sea. They protect the best places in the American
    ocean for the American people now and for future generations.
        I know you know the National Sanctuaries well. They are not
    just American icons. They are anchors for jobs and economic
    growth and they are also pillars in coastal communities around
    the country, centers of civic pride.
        Knowing the deep cuts that you are looking to make in the
    federal budget, but also recognizing the return of investment
    of our National Marine Sanctuaries it is with respect that I
    request $55 million to the National Marine Sanctuary program
    base which is NOAA's ORF $5.5 million for the PAC fund with the
    National Marine Sanctuaries.
        Now, I want to make just two points with this testimony.
    First, joining me in recommending these amounts is a national
    network of community-based, site-based organizations, all total
    nine in number that stretch from Boston to Hawaii and they all
    support these recommendations.
        First thing I would like to stress is the PAC dollars.
    These funds go towards vessel acquisition and visitor center
    construction. Without the PAC funds, visitor centers can't be
    constructed, research vessels cannot be purchased or maintained
    quite simply. As much as park managers need vehicles and trucks
    to do their business on land, sanctuary managers need vessels
    at sea.
        And the National Marine Sanctuary system has much more real
    estate in the system than national park system does--170,000
    square miles.
        Taking away PAC dollars is really harmful, but on the flip
    side, providing PAC dollars is really, really beneficial and I
    want to give you one example.
        NOAA just finished a multi-year project constructing a
    National Marine Sanctuary visitor center in Santa Cruz for
    Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
        Federal dollars were leveraged with state and private
    dollars. Jobs were created. Construction took a number of years
    and the visitor center just opened this past July.
        Within three months, 33,000 visitors passed through the
    doors. They expect 150,000 visitors annually for that. And it
    has quickly become a landmark in the Monterey Bay region, so
    PAC dollars are really important.
        The second thing I want to stress is why we are
    recommending this year a slight increase over the dollars from
    previous years. Simply as NOAA consolidates its program and
    streamlines its budget, more and more programs are being
    absorbed by different offices rising to the top. The National
    Marine Sanctuaries are such a hub in rising to the top, and so
    they have got increasing responsibilities, increasing staff as
    they draw weaker programs into the programs that are folding
    and closing within NOAA. So to meet their new authorities they
    really need some additional money to make that happen.
        I want to give you just two examples of what has transpired
    in the last two weeks that really underscore the importance of
    National Marine Sanctuaries. You may be aware that on March 8
    at Arlington National Cemetery, there was a very moving
    ceremony for the sailors of the USS Monitor.
        The back story of that started 40 years ago. I realize my
    time is up. I will finish the story and then I will end my
    testimony.
        The back story started when the Monitor was first
    designated as a National Marine Sanctuary in 1975, 40 years
    ago. After that, NOAA began working with the Navy. They pulled
    up the turret. That was 10 years in itself with a lot of NOAA
    behind-the-scenes work with the Navy.
        Within the turret they discovered the remains of two of the
    sailors that were lost at sea. NOAA researchers working with
    the academic community then spent another decade trying to
    identify who those soldiers among the lost sailors were. Did so
    to such an extent that they were able to identify the bodies
    and so, you know, two weeks ago the Navy was able to, up front,
    with NOAA in the background, recognize those soldiers,
    recognize the commitment they made to the country and give them
    the burial that they deserved as American heros. That is NOAA
    work. That is NOAA's sanctuary's work and it is congressional
    appropriations that make that happen.
        Last week there was a whale disentanglement in Hawaii, and
    I am sorry, one last story.
        CNN picked it up for five minutes and Hollywood makes
    movies about this, speaking of Matthew Perry, about
    disentangling endangered whales, and it went viral on the net,
    and those were NOAA scientists within the National Marine
    Sanctuary that did that disentanglement, and they run this
    program with a couple of million dollars a year with funding
    support that we are able to leverage through our own fund
    raising.
        And so again, it is congressional appropriations that are
    doing that kind of work, creating those kinds of stories,
    captivating the American imagination and allowing that to, you
    know, to be part of the American story.
        So thank you for the support you have given sanctuaries in
    the past and thank you for the consideration of this request.
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        Mr. Wolf. I was out at Monterey last year and I recall the
    burial at Arlington Cemetery, and the Washington Post did a
    couple of stories on this. It was very, very moving.
        But thank you for your testimony.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony and for your fund
    raising and all the supports for these programs.
        Mr. Patlis. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member.
        Mr. Culberson. I just want to say thank you for the work
    that you do. The committee strongly supports what you are doing
    and also put in a plug, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Fattah, for ocean
    exploration for--I don't know if we got anybody here from them,
    but they do great work, Dr. Ballard and the Ocean Exploration--
    underwater mapping, it doubled the size of the United States
    and our natural resources overnight, just through some of the
    work that they are doing.
        Mr. Patlis. Thank you very much. Dr. Ballard is a Trustee
    Emeritus of the foundation as is Sylvia Earle and Jean-Michel
    Cousteau.
        But again, the funding that NOAA sanctuaries receives is
    what we work with as a base, and then we can multiply that. And
    so the funds that you provide really allow us to do our job.
        Mr. Culberson. Great work generates good will. Thank you.
        Mr. Patlis. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        Mary Munson, Coastal States Organization.
        Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                          COASTAL STATES ORGANIZATION

                                    WITNESS

    MARY MUNSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
        Ms. Munson. Good morning. Mr. Chairman, members of the
    subcommittee.
        My name is Mary Munson. I am the Executive Director of the
    Coastal States Organization. We represent the governors of the
    nation's 35 coastal states on oceans, coastal and Great Lakes
    resource issues. I thank you for this opportunity to testify.
        As you know, we rely on our coastal areas for commerce,
    storm protection, recreation, energy, natural resources among
    many other things.
        We support adequate and sustained funding for the federal/
    state partnership programs, and I have left out the actual
    numbers in my testimony to keep this under four minutes, but
    the Coastal Zone Management Program, the Coastal and Estuarian
    Land Conservation Program, Regional Ocean Partnerships and
    National Estuarian Research Reserves, they form a critical
    framework supporting the nation's coast.
        These programs are a small portion of the budget, but
    provide dramatic results in coastal communities. They sustain
    coastal economies and are a good federal investment. These
    grants are matched by the states and leveraged with private and
    local funds.
        The U.S. economy is a coastal economy. The federal funding
    doesn't reflect it. The oceans and coast provide irreplaceable
    contributions to our economy and while only accounting for 18
    percent of U.S. land area, coasts are home to 163 million
    people and almost 5 million businesses.
        Coastal counties contribute $8.3 trillion to the U.S. GDP
    and employ 66 million people in coastal and ocean dependent
    sectors such as ports, marine transportation, tourism, off-
    shore energy, you name it.
        Today our coastal resources are at risk due to more intense
    storms, growing demand for the use, and an increase in natural
    hazards such sea level rise.
        The Coastal Zone Management Act states partner with NOAA to
    balance the need to maintain productive coastal and ocean
    resources and the need for sustainable and resilient
    development of these coastal communities, and failure to invest
    in these key programs now means a greater economic spending in
    the future, likely at a time of emergency.
        A couple of examples of the difference that federal funding
    makes in coastal communities. In 1999, Virginia, your state, in
    shaded oyster restoration efforts using $1.5 million in federal
    support and additional leveraged funds to construct sanctuary
    reefs and oyster harvest areas and have paid off.
        Between 2001 and 2011, landings increased from 23,000
    bushels to 236,000 bushels, an increase in value from $575,000
    to $8.26 million, just for that oyster restoration.
        In Pennsylvania, the state continues to open its coastline
    to public access through federal coastal funding. In
    Philadelphia, a rehabilitative pier now hosts an average of
    1,800 weekly visitors. The Lake Erie coastal zone has a newly
    constructed park, fishing pier, deck, walkway and that also
    enhances the lake's $36 million sport fishing industry among
    other benefits. So it is demonstrated effects.
        There are stories like this around the country showing on-
    the-ground benefits. Without national CZM program and federal
    funding support, the leverage funding would disappear and these
    programs wouldn't be possible.
        CSO appreciates the subcommittees past support and we
    appreciate your care and consideration of our request as you
    move forward with the appropriations process.
        Please see our written testimony for more details, but I
    appreciate your time and we look forward--we are having our
    annual meeting in the fall in Virginia in Norfolk, so we hope
    to see you there and thank you for your time.
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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much for your testimony.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you very much for your testimony.
        Ms. Munson. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        Next is David Bedford with Pacific Salmon Commission.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                           PACIFIC SALMON COMMISSION

                                    WITNESS

    DAVID BEDFORD, CHAIRMAN
        Mr. Bedford. Mr. Chairman, my name is David Bedford. I
    serve as a commissioner on the United States section of the
    Pacific Salmon Commission.
        The commission was established in 1985 to oversee the
    implementation of the Pacific Salmon Treaty between the United
    States and Canada. In May of 2008, the United States and Canada
    reached an agreement on a new set of fishery regimes which
    would apply for the period 2009 to 2018.
        Funding in the Department of Commerce for programs intended
    to fulfill national commitments reached under the treaty is
    approximately $10.8 million in 2012. The references that I make
    is a sort of a base in my discussion here, would be to 2012,
    since that is something where we have a clear picture of what
    the funding level was.
        The funding for the treaty is located in three lines in the
    National Marine Fishery Service budget or salmon management
    activities. The Pacific Salmon Treaty Line, the U.S. Chinook
    Agreement line, the 2008 Agreement line and then also the
    International Fisheries Commission line under Regional Councils
    and Fisheries Commissions.
        The Department of Commerce principally funds programs
    conducted by the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and
    Alaska. These programs fulfill national commitments created by
    the treaty. The costs of those programs is very substantially
    greater than the allotted money that is in the NOAA base.
        The NOAA base level of funding is, as I say, about $10.8
    million in the 2012 budget. We view that as being really a
    necessary figure moving ahead. We have, as a matter of course,
    have been forced to supplement that with other sources of
    revenue. At the 2012 funding level we think we can make ends
    meet, provided those other funding sources remain available.
        The Pacific Salmon Treaty line item in particular was
    funded at about $5.6 million. That supports the states and the
    federal agencies to conduct salmon stock assessment, fishery
    management programs and monitoring to implement the
    conservation and allocation provisions of the Salmon Treaty.
        The Chinook Salmon Agreement line item is funded as
    approximately at $1.8 million. This is a program for research
    and stock assessment. The grants are awarded out of this in a
    competitive process.
        The International Fisheries Commission line under Regional
    Councils and Fisheries Commissions is funded at $400,000. This
    pays for a bilateral salmon enhancement program on the trans-
    boundary rivers to rivers that rise in Canada and float into
    sea through southeast Alaska.
        The 2008 Agreement line supports programs that were put in
    place with the 2008 Agreement that were necessary to drive that
    particular set of negotiations to a conclusion where the level
    of funding needed here is $3 million.
        The base annual treaty implementation funding of
    approximately $5.6 million has remained essentially flat since
    1985. The kind of program that is implemented under the Salmon
    Treaty is a good deal more sophisticated and elaborate than it
    was at that time.
        We have much more greater demands now that we have
    endangered species concerns on the Pacific coast. We have much
    more intensive stock assessment, fishery compliance monitoring
    and technical support activities that have to be supported.
        The states have had to apply to various sources, for
    example, the fisheries grants, Dingell-Johnson monies, state
    general funds, as sources to backfill what is really an
    insufficient federal appropriation.
        The problem is that fisheries grants, for example, used to
    be in the NOAA budget but were eliminated a couple of years
    ago. Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery has had appropriations
    language applied to it, but has limited its use and was
    originally, it had appropriations language each year that said
    it could be used for meeting obligations under the Pacific
    Salmon Treaty, but is now constrained from use for those sorts
    of purposes.
        In any event, in looking ahead, we are troubled by how it
    is we will be able to fund the kinds of programs that the state
    conducts on behalf of the federal government, but we are
    hopeful that we will be able to accomplish that if we can
    maintain level funding.
        The Fish and Wildlife Service measures the economic impacts
    of the commercial line and sport fisheries on the west coast
    and with the states that are implicated in the treaty between
    $2 billion and $3 billion a year.
        The effect of implementation of the treaty is necessary to
    continue the kinds of benefits that we gather from the
    fisheries on the coast. To sustain those fisheries into the
    future, the treaty, again, is a conservation program that is
    intended to provide a continuing flow of benefits and is
    reasonably effective in accomplishing that, albeit there are
    certain restock conservation problems on the coast as well.
        Again, to accomplish what it is the states are trying to do
    on behalf of the national level that we feel that flat funding
    at the 2012 levels would be a basic necessity.
        This concludes my comments and I thank you very much for
    the opportunity to testify to the Committee.
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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much for your brief testimony.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony. This is a matter
    that the committee has been very supportive of in the past and
    we look forward to the opportunity to consider it again. Thank
    you.
        Mr. Wolf. Edward Johnstone, Northwest Indian Fisheries
    Commission.
        Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                     NORTHWEST INDIAN FISHERIES COMMISSION

                                    WITNESS

    EDWARD JOHNSTONE, TREASURER
        Mr. Johnstone. Thank you.
        Good morning, Mr. Chairman. My name is Ed Johnstone. I am a
    Quinault tribal member. I represent fisheries policy for the
    nation. I am also the treasurer of the Northwest Indian
    Fisheries Commission. I am here filling big shoes of Billy
    Frank, Jr. that asked me to come to provide this testimony. And
    the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission is comprised of 23
    tribes in Puget Sound, the Straits of Juan de Fuca and the
    Washington Coast.
        I am here to testify on NOAA programs that are important to
    us such as $110 million from NOAA's Pacific Coastal Salmon
    Recovery Fund. These funds are critical to the restoration of
    habitat that has been lost in mostly in the Puget Sound region,
    but the coast is also affected.
        The work that is done in all these watershed is connected
    through ESA, through the requirements of ESA, the
    administration has also a thread connection with the Pacific
    Salmon Treaty and other forms, and the work that we are doing
    is critical work that is needed because the pace at which we
    are losing our river systems and corridors and habitat is being
    outpaced by the amount of money in the work that we can do. We
    got good restoration programs in place, but we don't have the
    money to, you know, to keep pace at the rate at which the
    people are coming to the State of Washington. Cities and
    counties and the states have to deal with all of this growth
    and it is backlogging on us and we are reaching out, we are
    trying to get the funding level at the high water mark of $110
    million, and that reflects that work that needs to be done.
        And this work is on-the-ground work. All the river systems
    have recovery plans and this money goes to projects such as
    what we have at Quinault which is an Upper Quinault
    restoration. It is a hundred-year plan. It is millions of
    dollars. When we have got it all engineered and when we have
    the dollars to do the work, it is jobs in the community that
    support these local economies as well as the state.
        The Pacific Salmon Treaty that was just presented to you by
    the previous speaker, we support that. All of the reasons that
    he had mentioned, including the Chinook annex, the $7.859
    million for the treaty and an additional $3.0 million for the
    Chinook agreement, this is all critical work that has to be
    done in the integrity of the color guard tag program and the
    data for fisheries management purposes is real critical. It not
    only fulfills commitment to the Canadians through the treaty,
    but it also helps fulfill the trust obligation that the United
    States has with us as treaty tribes.
        The $15.9 million for NOAA's Mitchell Act hatcheries, and
    these are predominantly on the lower Columbia River, we support
    those hatcheries. The production in those hatcheries are very
    vital to the treaty tribes and also to the Washington economy
    as a byproduct; $20 million for NOAA's Regional Ocean
    Partnership, that is for a lot of this work that you hear from
    the Marine Sanctuary Program, is like work that we do as
    coastal treaty tribes. We do collaborate with the sanctuary and
    other entities to protect our areas, our treaty areas out in
    the ocean, as well as working with our neighbors in the
    communities.
        The last thing I want to say has to do with the Treaty
    Rights at Risk paper that we brought back here into Congress
    and to the White House last year that talks about how our
    treaty rights are diminishing because of all of these issues
    that deal with the ability to recover salmon and it is at
    length in our written testimony and we appreciate the
    opportunity to come before you this morning.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much. I appreciate your testimony.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you, sir, for your testimony and filling
    those big shoes. You did a good job.
        Mr. Johnstone. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Anne Miglarese with PLANETIQ. How do you
    pronounce the group's name? Do you know?
        Ms. Miglarese. Planet IQ.
        Mr. Wolf. Planet IQ.
        Ms. Miglarese. Uh-huh.
        Mr. Wolf. Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                                    PLANETIQ

                                    WITNESS

    ANNE MIGLARESE, PRESIDENT/CEO
        Ms. Milgarese. Good morning. Chairman Wolf and other
    members of the committee, I want to thank you for the
    opportunity to present to you today.
        I am not seeking any funding, but need the committee's
    leadership in supporting an innovative alternative to meet the
    atmospheric observation needs of this country, alternatives
    that have a stunning track record of success in the
    intelligence community.
        Today more than 90 percent of the atmospheric observations
    that go into a weather forecast come from the satellites. As I
    am sure you are well aware, the GAO has recently published a
    report that said that there is likely to be a gap of 17 to 53
    months and it will start as soon as next year.
        Almost this exact same situation occurred 10 years ago in
    the intelligence community. At that time the nation was trying
    to build the next generation of federal government intelligence
    satellites called FIA. They were over budget and behind
    schedule and a serious risk to the intelligence community of
    flying blind around the globe.
        The NGA implemented a risk mitigation contracting strategy
    at that time called ClearView which provided a steady stream of
    revenue for commercial satellite imagery companies in exchange
    for affordable and a consistent supply of high quality imagery
    data for both civilian and military purposes.
        This was the Pentagon's risk mitigation strategy, one that
    not only served them well at that time, but one that continues
    today, a strategy that got a nascent U.S. industry off the
    ground, an industry that thrives today and is worth $2 billion
    a year globally and is lead by a U.S. company.
        Given the impending data gap, the purchase mile once again
    offers a superior approach, encouraging government agencies to
    purchase commercial data, satellite data where possible would,
    significantly improve our weather forecast accuracy even if the
    gap does not occur.
        It would mitigate the risk of a harmful gap if it does
    occur, all with predictable, sustainable and lower costs of
    government in the long run and provide private sector jobs in
    the U.S., high tech, high paying jobs.
        Let me be clear, I am not proposing that NOAA get out of
    the satellite weather business. Instead, where possible, we
    suggest shifting the burden of some of the data requirements to
    the commercial sector just as the intelligence community has
    done.
        Let the private sector put private capital to work. Let us
    take the risk of a failed launch or a sensor malfunction. We
    are willing.
        Make no mistake, a business-as-usual strategy not only will
    tilt the odds towards a longer and more harmful satellite data
    gap this decade, but will also lead to similar or worse gaps in
    the future.
        That old adage ``if ain't broke, don't fix it'' should ring
    loud and clear in your ears. This system is broke and doing the
    same thing the same way will not fix it in the short or in the
    long term.
        My request of the Appropriations subcommittee is to require
    the National Weather Service to utilize cost effective
    commercial data purchases from U.S. industry at every
    opportunity, encourage the National Weather Service to use
    their anchor tenancy authority which has been on the books for
    twenty years but never used.
        NOAA should implement a strategy to facilitate growth of
    the commercial weather data sector, much as NASA has helped
    nurture a burgeoning commercial space flight industry and NGA
    gave life to the commercial satellite imagery market. With
    downstream impacts that have given us Google maps and tens of
    thousands of private sector jobs, let us learn from history.
    Thank you.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much for your testimony.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony today.
        Mr. Wolf. Next, Emily Douce, Marine Conservation Institute.
        Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                         MARINE CONSERVATION INSTITUTE

                                    WITNESS

    EMILY DOUCE, CONSERVATION PROJECTS MANAGER
        Ms. Douce. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I
    want to thank you for the opportunity to testify on fiscal year
    2014 appropriations in regards to the National Oceanic and
    Atmospheric Administration.
        My name is Emily Douce and I represent the Marine
    Conservation Institute, a nonprofit conservation organization
    that identifies important marine ecosystems and advocates for
    their protection for us and future generations.
        Marine Conservation Institute has become increasingly
    concerned about NOAA's oceans, coasts and fisheries programs as
    the growing cost to upkeep our weather satellites continues to
    grow.
        We support maintaining funds for the full range of NOAA's
    activities. The oceans play a vital role in our nation's
    economy but without adequate funding for ocean and coastal and
    fisheries programs, the health of our oceans cannot be
    maintained.
        The U.S. ocean economy contributes more than $258 billion
    to our nation's GDP through fisheries and seafood production,
    tourism, recreation, construction and transportation. The first
    of the three programs I would like to speak about today is
    NOAA's Marine National Monument's program.
        In 2009, three marine national monuments in the Pacific
    were established by President George W. Bush, protecting
    195,000 square miles of marine habitat. These areas include
    some of the world's most pristine tropical islands and coral
    reef ecosystems. Using these remarkably intact tropical
    ecosystems who were developing an understanding of what healthy
    and productive places look like and help us identify negative
    impacts to marine ecosystems closer to home and shows us the
    benefit of restoration.
        Without sufficient and sustained resources, NOAA cannot
    adequately protect these areas from illegal fishing, invasive
    species, vessel groundings and other threats. Continued budget
    cuts will reduce critical research and outreach grants to
    scientists and organizations and reduce opportunities for the
    U.S. to partner with other Pacific island nations to address
    the threats mentioned above.
        Therefore, we recommend $3 million for the Pacific Marine
    Monuments program in 2014.
        The next program I will highlight is the Hawaiian Monk Seal
    Recovery Program. NOAA has a responsibility for reviving the
    population of the Hawaiian monk seal as it only resides in U.S.
    waters and is one of the most critically endangered marine
    mammals in the world.
        Over the last fifty years the Hawaiian monk seal population
    has declined by 60 percent and only 1,000 individuals remain.
    There is reasonable hope for the monk seal if a small sub-
    population in the main Hawaiian islands can continue to grow.
    However, this population growth has generated increased
    conflicts with recreational fisherman who unintentionally hook
    or untangle these seals.
        NOAA has made great strides in implementing the Monk Seal
    Recovery Plan in recent years. It has been conservatively
    estimated that 30 percent of the monk seals alive today are due
    to direct actions by NOAA and its partners.
        However, we are concerned that funding for the monk seal
    has severely decreased in recent years. Lower funding levels
    have reduced field camps, hampered critical community liaison
    efforts and diminished research programs that develop
    mitigation measures for human seal interactions.
        We strongly recommend moderately increasing funding by $1
    million to $4.5 million in 2014 as a step towards the $7
    million recommended in the recovery plan.
        The final program I will mention today is NOAA's Office of
    Law Enforcement. NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement is
    responsible for enforcing the laws that conserve and protect
    our Nation's fisheries, threatened and endangered species, and
    marine sanctuaries and monuments.
        The office is also responsible for enforcing the United
    States international commitments to fight illegal, unregulated
    and unreported or IUU fishing.
        NOAA's jurisdiction spans 3.4 million square miles of
    marine environments with a Pacific region comprising half of
    that. As fish stocks decline worldwide, the threat of foreign
    poaching of U.S. fish stocks becomes greater, particularly in
    remote areas.
        Officials estimate the global value of losses from IUU
    fishing ranges between $10 and $23.5 billion annually.
        For domestic and international fish stocks to recover,
    strict regulations and increased enforcement must be put in
    place, particularly in remote areas like the Pacific Marine
    Monuments.
        Marine conservation institutes strongly supports $67
    million, a moderate increase of $1.5 million for NOAA's Office
    of Law Enforcement. This will allow the program to maintain
    current capabilities while also providing modest additional
    funding to the Pacific region.
        In summary, Marine Conservation Institute respectfully
    requests that this subcommittee maintain or slightly augment
    funding for the conservation side of NOAA, by the amounts
    discussed today and in my written testimony.
        Thank you.
        [The information follows:]

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        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.113

        Mr. Wolf. Thank you for your testimony. I appreciate it.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Wolf. Kathryn Brigham, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
    Commission.
        Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                  COLUMBIA RIVER INTER-TRIBAL FISH COMMISSION

                                    WITNESS

    N. KATHRYN BRIGHAM, CHAIRWOMAN
        Ms. Brigham. Good morning. And thank you for this
    opportunity to provide my testimony. I am a member of the
    Confederate Eight Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, I
    am the Board of Trustees Secretary for our governing body and
    the chairman of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
    Commission.
        Our member tribes include the Yakama Nation, the Nez Perce
    tribe, Umatilla Tribes and Warm Springs tribes.
        It is my pleasure to address you to them regarding programs
    that are important to our members tribes on the Pacific
    Northwest Salmon Management.
        I will be covering funding for the Mitchell Act, the
    Pacific Salmon Treaty and Pacific Salmon Coastal Recovery
    funds. In addition, I want to let you know that we are working
    on a Columbia River Hatchery strategy and a request to have
    mass marking language reviewed.
        Specifically, we are requesting $26.6 million of the
    Columbia River Mitchell Act and $10.8 million for the Pacific
    Salmon Treaty we support and $90 million for the Pacific Salmon
    Coastal Recovery Fund to support on-the-ground salmon
    restoration activities.
        Mitchell Act, in the 1930s the Mitchell Act was passed to
    provide mitigation for damages done to the fisheries by
    construction, existence and operation of the federal dams in
    the Columbia River.
        Mitchell Act is being flat funded for many years and the
    funds have never adequately mitigated for the loss in tribal
    fisheries, but we currently support the $26.6 million because
    of the 25 percent, $6.7 million that the tribes use to rebuild
    natural salmon stocks.
        As we said before, we support the Pacific Salmon Treaty's
    request, and then on the Pacific Salmon Coastal Recovery Fund.
    The Nez Perce tribe, and I want to show you this, but the Nez
    Perce tribe has a program and is a good example of how these
    funds are being used. The Nez Perce tribe is 100 percent
    federally-- Pacific Salmon Coastal Funding and in the
    Clearwater, the coho have been declared extinct, and then
    because of these funds and this program, we now have 5,000 coho
    returning to the Clearwater.
        The Columbia River Hatchery strategy, the Columbia River is
    working toward a unified Columbia River Hatchery strategy with
    our co-managers. Part of this strategy will rely on the best
    available science that is supported by adequate funding.
        The overall goal is to meet tribal tributary rights and the
    listing of ESA stocks, prevailing laws and linking the
    agreements such as U.S. v. Oregon, the Pacific Salmon Treaty,
    and the accords.
        Our goal is to get ESA off our back, which is to get to the
    stocks delisted so we can go back to managing our stocks for
    everyone to harvest in the Columbia River and its tributaries.
        We request a review of the Salmon Mass Marking Program. A
    congressional requirement delivered through prior appropriation
    language to visibly mark all salmon produced in federally
    funded hatcheries should be reconsidered.
        We have requested and we continue to request that the
    federal mass marketing requirement be reviewed to allow salmon
    managers in the Columbia River basin to have the latitude to
    make a decision on marking on a case-by-case basis that leads
    to a goal of delisting ESA stocks and meeting the federal trust
    responsibility to the tribes.
        In summary, the four tribes have developed the capacity and
    infrastructure to lead and restore and rebuilding Columbia
    River Basin Salmon through collaborative efforts to protect our
    treaty reserved rights and we thank you and ask you for your
    continuing support.
        And I want to assure you of this as well. This is the
    letter that we sent in 2011 asking that mass marking be
    reconsidered, and this is a referral that 41 tribes hooked
    together to develop transition for our tributary rights, rights
    protection funding.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.114

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.115

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.116

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.117

        Mr. Wolf. Thank you for your testimony.
        Ms. Brigham. Thank you.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you for your testimony. I am very
    sympathetic to some of the points that you have made. Thank
    you.
        Mr. Wolf. Congressman Reed.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                                    WITNESS

    HON. TOM REED, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK
        Mr. Reed. Thank you, Chairman Wolf, Ranking Member Fattah.
    Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify before
    this Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related
    Agencies.
        I wish to testify in support of two programs. First, the
    methamphetamine lab cleanup transfer from Community Orientated
    Policing Services at the Department of Justice of $12.5 million
    to the Drug Enforcement Administration. I also will testify in
    support of the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service under the
    National Weather Service at the National Oceanic and
    Atmospheric Administration at the level of $6,209,000 to
    adequately fund stream and rain gauges in the Chemung,
    Allegheny and Susquehanna River basins, the heart of which are
    located in my district, the 23rd Congressional District in
    Western New York.
        The cleanup of meth sites is a costly and potentially
    dangerous process. Local law enforcement agencies cannot
    adequately address the cleanup of such sites using their own
    resources and require federal assistance to do so. Particularly
    since the communities in my district most affected by the
    impacts of abandoned meth sites are in rural areas with limited
    financial resources to address this issue, it is important that
    this transfer for meth lab cleanup is adequately funded in
    support of this need.
        Formerly the COPS Meth Initiative provided grants to local
    law enforcement to engage in the cleanup of meth sites and also
    funded equipment and training for dealing with the impacts of
    methamphetamine on communities. The funding for meth
    enforcement and cleanup was reduced from $40,385,000 in fiscal
    year 2010 to $12,425,000 in fiscal year 2011, a reduction of 70
    percent of the total funding from the previous fiscal year.
        The current transfer of funding from the community
    orientating policing services to the Drug Enforcement
    Administration has now become a critical asset for communities
    affected by meth production and cleanup. This support must
    continue to ensure that local law enforcement has the tools and
    best practices available to safely clean up meth production
    sites.
        On a second point, the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction
    Service represents a vital resource in our district in funding
    our nation's network of stream and rain gauges. Particularly in
    flood-prone regions these devices provide an early warning
    system when river levels begin to rise, giving communities the
    time they need to prepare for the possibility of flooding or to
    evacuate residents if needed. These prediction services help
    mitigate the economic damages caused by flooding and are a
    critical indicator needed to avoid loss of life. In particular,
    I harken to my home town of Corning, New York in 1972 that
    suffered the devastating effects of Hurricane Agnes and caused
    widespread economic damage to my home community of Corning and
    also caused many injuries and deaths in 1972.
        Earlier this year, 19 stream gauges and 7 rain gauges in
    New York State, operated by the United States Geological
    Survey, were in danger of being shut down as a result of lack
    of funding. Fortunately, the sites have shifted budgetary
    resources in order to ensure funding into June of this year,
    but more must be done to ensure these sites are properly funded
    for the long term.
        Thank you, Chairman Wolf, Ranking Member Fattah, and
    members of this subcommittee for this opportunity.
        Please let me know if I can follow up in any way
    whatsoever.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.118

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.119

        Mr. Wolf. Mr. Reed, thank you for your testimony.
        Mr. Reed. Thank you very much, Chairman.
        Mr. Fattah. This is nowhere near the Delaware River?
        Mr. Reed. No, we are further west, but it is very close,
    but that would be impacted by a similar situation with the rain
    gauges.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you very much for your testimony.
        Mr. Reed. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much.
        Nancy Colleton, Alliance for Earth Observations.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                        ALLIANCE FOR EARTH OBSERVATIONS

                                    WITNESS

    NANCY COLLETON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
        Ms. Colleton. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member
    Fattah. It is a pleasure being here.
        As you said, I'm Nancy Colleton and I am representing this
    morning the Alliance for Earth Observations. I am here with a
    group of academic, business and also non-governmental
    organizations that help to allocate the importance of why we
    look at the planet, try to understand things with the science
    and technologies that you are able to do.
        I am here this morning to deliver three key points. The
    first is to request that you support earth science and
    observing programs, funding for those programs since they are
    very important to the country.
        And secondly, you consider that how we run we might
    strengthen the nation's investment in these systems like long-
    term planning, and again, making sure that the country has the
    tools and technology that it needs to better manage in the
    future.
        And lastly, I would hope that we begin to look more and
    more at any national investment in these technologies and the
    science and also any investment in our economy. And I say that
    because when you look at $12 million as an investment, the
    continued shorted value of our U.S. coast, for example, yet, we
    have an emerging ocean reserve system.
        In 2012, insurance is looking at the insured losses for
    2012 alone had $58 million. U.S. crop losses just from last
    year, $25 billion.
        And so as we look at more and more and how we have to
    manage risks, whether you are managing a community, a company
    or your family, the need for information, the need for this
    intelligence is becoming more and more vital.
        And you are going to hear from a number of our members,
    some of them are present here today to talk about the different
    serving systems, and you know, as we look at how we--we have
    been hearing about fisheries this morning, how vital it is to
    have information, we cannot manage what we cannot measure. So
    we need to measure to manage.
        And lastly, I would say that as we move forward, we must
    also understand that the investment in these programs--and I
    know how difficult it is right now with all of these programs
    trying to, requesting dollars, but $3 million across 17
    agencies to do the kinds of earth science and observations that
    we do to better understand our planet it is a relatively small
    investment when you juxtapose that against $58 billion in
    losses last year.
        So my message to you this morning is short. I won't take up
    my four minutes, but I hope it will be a clear message. Thank
    you very much.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.120

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.121

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.122

        Mr. Wolf. It was a very clear message. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Fattah.
        Mr. Fattah. Thank you very much. And obviously this
    committee has supported of host of observation techniques,
    whether satellites or the thousand land observation points for
    the National Weather Service or the National Science
    Foundation's observatory system and partnerships around the
    world, so the Chairman and I agree with you in many respects.
    Thank you.
        Ms. Colleton. Thank you, sir.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        Dr. Darrel Williams, Global Science and Technology.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                  GLOBAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, INC., NESDIS

                                    WITNESS

    DARREL WILLIAMS, Ph.D., CHIEF SCIENTIST
        Mr. Williams. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and
    members of the subcommittee for this opportunity to testify on
    the importance of this increased funding for the NOAA and
    NESDIS Comprehensive Large Array data-Stewardship System
    commonly referred to as NOAA and NESDIS CLASS program.
        I am Dr. Darrel Williams, Chief Scientist at Global Science
    and Technology, Incorporated. We are headquartered in Maryland
    but we also have offices in Virginia and West Virginia, North
    Carolina and Colorado.
        Prior to joining GST, I had a 35-year federal career at
    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the earth sciences director
    of ensuring scientific integrity of numerous earth observation
    methods. Thus, I appear before you today with a keen
    appreciation of the importance of the CLASS archive program.
        So what exactly is CLASS? Class is a nationwide library
    archive, the home of NOAA's environmental data that is designed
    to consolidate, support the permanent secure and efficient
    long-term preservation and dissemination of our weather
    satellite data, the ocean observation data and earth
    environmental data.
        When completing the CLASS archives, we have one of the
    largest archives in the world. The importance of CLASS archive
    is somewhat again in the Library of Congress archives, but
    CLASS is specifically focused on preservation of the nation's
    environmental data.
        As for the uses of CLASS data, they consist of the weather
    and climate researchers who use the archives for a broad range
    of scientific, business and humanitarian applications. These
    efforts help to improve forecast capabilities which, in turn,
    results in saving lives and property. The archives is also used
    to better understand long-term trends, thereby assisting the
    government officials in making more informed decisions down the
    road.
        For example, data collected during super-storm Sandy
    recently and Hurricane Katrina, are now in a CLASS archive for
    routine access by all users.
        As for the size of the user base, we are talking about over
    35,000 registered users representing organizations such as
    insurance companies, legal groups, organizations involved in
    disaster recovery and related activities, as well as members of
    academia, U.S. and foreign government agencies.
        However, we have major budget concerns for the
    sustainability of class in fiscal year 2014 and beyond. Over
    the past few years, the JPSS status and the GOES-R programs
    have provided 70 percent of the funding to build the system to
    meet their needs. Within two years, however, these funding
    sources will most likely be gone.
        The core CLASS budget has never been increased above the
    baseline that was established in fiscal year 2002 at a level of
    about $6.5 million. So again, I repeat, the baseline budget has
    been stagnant for over a decade.
        CLASS will have inadequate baseline funding to support the
    growth and requirements that has been levied on the archive. We
    have already implemented significant staff cuts to the tune of
    24 full time equivalents, 12 each over the last two fiscal
    years.
        We are seeking an increase in baseline funding from
    approximately $6.5 million to $20 million per year.
        In fiscal year 2014, the total funding needed is actually
    $35 million to meet all the mandated needs and the $15 million
    difference between the $20 million in baseline and what we are
    asking for would have to come from JPSS and GOES-R, but as you
    are all probably aware, they are having funding issues of their
    own and so receipt of that $15 million addition is not
    guaranteed.
        Currently, there are no budget line items for sustainment
    of operations of maintenance, so these budget cuts, coupled
    with increased demands on the system pose a serious threat to
    the program's success.
        In summary, the CLASS archive is critical to the U.S.
    government and to our citizens because it helps us to better
    understand and deal with the world we live in, including the
    development of more accurate and timely weather forecasts and
    predictions, better understanding of and planning for variable
    phenomena such as drought and widely fluctuating temperatures
    we have been experiencing in the last few years and supporting
    our goal of being a weather ready nation.
        So on behalf of Global Science and Technology, I would like
    to thank you for your time and ask if you would please consider
    increasing support for the NOAA and NESDIS CLASS program.
        Thank you.
        [The information follows:]

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        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.125

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.126

        Mr. Wolf. Well, thank you.
        I am trying to move it along, but I want to make a comment,
    though, and I don't want to do this to everybody else's
    testimony.
        We are seeing the domestic discretionary squeezed and
    squeezed. And until there is a grand bargain, something along
    the lines, and I am speaking for myself now of Simpson-Bowles,
    this is going to continue, and these cuts are going to continue
    coming.
        To even ask for an increase is just--I mean, I agree. I
    mean, all the witnesses have all been great witnesses. I wish
    the whole Administration and the Congress could have listened
    to you, but I think unless we do something grand and the
    Simpson-Bowles test, you got to raise the retirement age for
    Social Security. And I said it, okay.
        So what happens? Nothing happens. I go into high schools
    and I ask the young kids how many of you believe the system is
    sound and will be there when you retire and in the last four
    years, from Langley High School in my district to the beautiful
    Shenandoah Valley, not one kid has raised their hand, so they
    know more than the Congress and the Administration.
        And Simpson-Bowles says if you are 50, you got to work
    another month; 51, forget it, you are a free--51, 52, 53. If
    you are 40, another six months. And until we deal with these
    issues, the entitlement issues, these programs are going to
    continue to get squeezed. I mean, you will be back next year,
    but there will be exceptions, but there will be very little
    increases in anything because the domestic discretionary is
    just going like this, and in 2024 and 2025 when if we pray to
    the God that everyone out there is still alive, every penny
    that comes in, every penny, every penny that comes in will go
    for Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security and interest on the
    debt.
        And the interest on the debt will be roughly $9.2 to $10
    billion a week. Can you imagine what you could have with all
    that money. We owe China over a trillion dollars, so unless we
    do something grand and bold, these things are just going to
    come. I mean, it is just frightening what I see out there.
        But I do appreciate your testimony and that is kind of for
    all the programs that are being said. We have got to reform
    these entitlements.
        Thank you. Now, I am going to kick the can down the road.
        Mr. Williams. I appreciate your difficult situation we are
    all in, frankly.
        Mr. Fattah. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Culberson. Everyone of you will talk to your
    congressman and senators to save the entitlement programs from
    bankruptcy because once that happens, as Chairman Wolf says,
    that will free up money for investments in this community.
        Mr. Wolf. Have you been following the news out of Cyprus?
        Mr. Culberson. Yes, that is our future.
        Mr. Williams. I know my PIN number. I will go get some
    money.
        Mr. Wolf. Well, the banks aren't opening up until Tuesday.
        But Dr. Cecil, Global Science and Technology.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                   GLOBAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY, INC., NCDC

                                    WITNESS

    L. DEWAYNE CECIL, PROGRAM MANAGER, CLIMATE DATA RECORDS
        Mr. Cecil. Good afternoon and thank you very much. I
    appreciate your comments, Mr. Wolf, and thank you to the
    subcommittee members and staff, and I appreciate this
    opportunity.
        My name is DeWayne Cecil. I have been with Global Science
    and Technology for a little over a year now as the program
    manager for the Climate Data Record Program on the contractors
    side at NOAA's national climatic data center in Asheville,
    North Carolina. That is after a 31-year career in the federal
    sector with NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey and a 3-year
    stint with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era conflict.
        And I think I bring to the private sector which are related
    to your comments, Mr. Wolf, bring to the private sector a
    unique look at how can we better--and you have heard a couple
    of the witnesses talk about better coordination and
    observations across the federal sector. That is particular
    germane to your comments about, in these shrinking budgets and
    the environment that we are working in, how do we do a better
    job in the federal sector collecting these observations and
    making the information timely and relevant to decision makers
    in cities, states and regions.
        So I will try to relate some of the things that we are
    doing at the National Climatic Data Center to help NOAA do that
    better.
        Before I do that, I did a little bit of research before I
    came today because I am a scientist and so I looked at the
    populations of the states of all the subcommittee members and
    added them up with the best numbers I could get for now and it
    is about 145 million people that you represent on this
    subcommittee, about the half the nation's population. And so I
    am one person in four minutes, and so I really do appreciate
    the opportunity that I got to come here to talk to you today.
        So in 2009 the subcommittee convened a hearing to hear
    about NASA and NOAA's work on better coordinating climate data
    records from satellites. And Dr. Tom Carl who is the director
    of NCDC in Nashville and Dr. Louis Uccellini who is now the
    Director of the National Weather Service for NOAA, came and
    chatted with you for quite some time and had a question and
    answer period. And from that hearing, you had appropriated some
    dollars to get this program started and so I just wanted to
    tell you that since that time we have, Global Science and
    Technology as a support contractor has helped NOAA at NCDC
    transition 12 climate data record sets, satellite climate data
    record sets from a research environment into an operational
    environment for decision support and I will talk a little bit
    about that in a few minutes.
        But those research climate data records were predominantly
    from the academic sector and we work with institutions in most
    every state of the member of this subcommittee. They are the
    ones that produce the research codes and the data and we help
    NOAA then make those operational and we do that side by side
    with end users so that it makes sense, it is in a format that
    they can utilized, they can build decision support around.
        You have heard a couple of people testify about the marine
    sanctuaries. We are working closely with National Marine
    Sanctuaries to use satellite climate data information.
        What this information is, is 30 to 40 years records into
    the past of satellites on a regional and global scale that we
    can help end users, whether they are water purveyors in Salt
    Lake Valley or they are farmers in Iowa or they are energy
    industry in North Carolina, we can help them use this
    information to make better informed decisions, not necessarily
    better decisions but better-informed decisions.
        And so we want to be able to continue this program. We see
    some opportunities with the budget cuts that are happening, for
    instance just this week, the National Weather Service announced
    that the precipitation gauges, rain gauges in the historical
    climate reference network in the southwest region are going to
    be capped because of budget cuts because of sequestration. We
    can't get technicians out to take care of these gauges and
    collect the precipitation information. We see that as an
    opportunity to satellite information on a regional scale could
    perhaps help us get through those kinds of gaps, so we see it
    as a critical program to the country that NOAA has formalized
    with NASA and with USGS, and we really would like to have your
    continued support and appreciate the time today.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.127

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.128

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.129

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.130

        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Culberson. Where did you get that?
        Mr. Cecil. The date is stored, you hear this concept of the
    cloud, it is stored out on servers on the cloud, I guess. This
    is actually servers at the National Climatic Data Center in
    Asheville, these data sets are. But there is some plan at some
    point to work with CLASS and have the data available that way
    as well.
        Mr. Culberson. Yeah, I don't know how secure the cloud is,
    and I am frankly glad to hear that it is at servers that you
    control, publicly paid for, available to public.
        Mr. Cecil. Yes. Yes.
        Mr. Culberson. What are the Chinese using the data for?
        Mr. Cecil. Hopefully they are using it to look at weather
    and climate extremes just like we are. Particularly on this
    program as a contractor, we aren't working with Chinese. We are
    working closely with companies that do work globally. We are
    working with an energy company that is using the satellite
    climate data records to buy and sell natural gas features and
    they depend daily on the projections that we make off these
    climate data records or NOAA makes off the climate data
    records.
        Mr. Culberson. Because I saw that there is a--foreign
    government, China, Russia, Europe. You do have Chinese
    registered users.
        Mr. Cecil. Yes, as far as I--I can check that for you. I am
    sure we do. I mean, it is an open public system. It is NOAA's
    computer system.
        Mr. Culberson. Okay. Thank you, very much.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        Admiral Lautenbacher, Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing
    Regional Association.
        Mr. Lautenbacher. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Wolf. Welcome back.
        Mr. Lautenbacher. Thank you, sir.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

             SOUTHEAST COASTAL OCEAN OBSERVING REGIONAL ASSOCIATION

                                    WITNESS

    VICE ADMIRAL CONRAD C. LAUTENBACHER, JR., (USN) (RET.), BOARD MEMBER
        Mr. Lautenbacher. Mr. Chairman----
        Mr. Wolf. Where do you live now?
        Mr. Lautenbacher. Well, I live in two places. I live in
    Atlanta mostly, but I also visit my grandchildren in Mineral
    Park, California. So right now I am in California.
        You made it very cold for me today. This was a shock.
        Anyway, thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Chairman, Mr.
    Fattah, and distinguished members of the committee and the
    hardworking staff I see sitting around here. It is a trip down
    memory lane.
        I haven't heard much that I can't also support in spades,
    and particularly from you, sir, on the situation we are in, but
    I won't disappoint you. I am here to support increased funding
    and restoration of cuts that are creating problems with
    observing systems, particularly with a program called the
    Integrated Ocean Observing System, IOOS. I represent today the
    board and the Executive Committee of the Southeastern Coastal
    Ocean Observing Regional Association, SECOORA, known from
    Atlanta.
        It is, if you will remember something I supported strongly
    when I was a new administrator and thanks to you and other
    members of Congress there is now a mandate which took what was
    a collection of member-interest programs in various parts
    around our coast, brought it together into a national program
    that is organized. It is integrated and provides what I would
    say a product that is unique in its way because it supports the
    national warnings and forecasts and weather systems, as well as
    providing detailed information for local harbors, ports, port
    authorities, the coast and all the rest of the Coast Guard, the
    Navy and FEMA in terms of emergency services.
        So it represents a big addition to our ability to collect
    the data, and it is not only just a system which provides data.
    It is an end-to-end system, and it is designed for users, as I
    mentioned, for FEMA and the Navy and Coast Guard.
        It is doing that today. It is taking these district pieces
    of hardware and people doing models who put it together in a
    coordinated network that is totally integrated. There is one
    data port in the southeast and it is completely integrated with
    the other 11 regional agencies.
        And so for a small amount of money, relatively small amount
    of money, there has been big leverage in terms of our ability
    to have better warnings for the severe weather that we have
    had. And I just want to use two examples. My testimony has more
    in there, but in super-storm Sandy, for instance, Hoboken was
    submerged and a lot of those, 34,000 people were affected
    because of the flooding.
        The models that were used and some of the data, not all of
    the data, that created the models, gave the Mayor the
    opportunity to warn people and evacuate that area and save a
    lot of lives. Came from the surge models that are produced by
    IOOS, not by the National Weather Services, although I am not
    here talking international weather service, and we need it all.
        So 34,000 people, basically, had the opportunity to save
    their lives and all the automobiles left, so we have protection
    of life and property that made a big difference.
        The Port Authority in New Jersey and New York were able to
    move something like 23,000 TEUs and deliver them somewhere
    else, so all of the goods that are needed. As you can certainly
    know, it is hard to supply New York City and that area with the
    kind of goods that keeps it going. It is a very consolidated
    area of people and services.
        So it is in the deepwater horizon, it was the high
    frequency radars that provided the information on surface
    currents and allowed federal management authorities--that is an
    IOOS system that allowed us to determine where the oil was
    going and predict models, so it is end-to-end service.
        So let me close with, so what we are basically asking for
    is a restoration of money to the system that has been cut. We
    have had to put buoys in mothballs and reduce the amount of
    effort that produces the research that create the models to
    provide this warning for national security and for our economy,
    and an increase to help us harden the systems that we have
    today so that they are not going to be overcome as some of them
    were during the storms, and this is not just the east coast.
    This is the west coast. This is Great Lakes. It is the Pacific.
    It is all that.
        Thank you, sir. I appreciate your time.
        [The information follows:]

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        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.135

        Mr. Wolf. And we thank you very much. I appreciate your
    being here.
        Mr. Lautenbacher. My pleasure.
        Mr. Wolf. Congressman Farr. Welcome, Sam.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                             UNITED STATES CONGRESS

                                    WITNESS

    HON. SAM FARR, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF
        CALIFORNIA
        Mr. Farr. Thank you, very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking
    Member Mr. Fattah who just left, and my good other Chairman,
    Mr. Culberson. Thank you for this moment to speak to you.
        I come every year as Chairman Wolf knows with one plea and
    it usually starts with the map behind you that has got more
    blue than green. That map is here to remind members of Congress
    that 73 percent of the globe is ocean.
        The U.S. government has more maritime domain because of all
    our responsibilities in the South Pacific and each of those
    with an exclusive 200-mile exclusive economic zone. We have
    more maritime domain than any other country in the world, even
    though countries like Indonesia have more coastlines.
        This Committee has this critical responsibility with regard
    to the three big subject matters. It is interesting how the
    Department of Commerce, while we think of it mostly as our
    business department, most of the Department's budget is used to
    fund NOAA. Further, NOAA really has two components. It has the
    ocean and coastal programs and the atmospheric programs.
        What has been happening is, because of all of our natural
    disasters, and I think the politics are appropriate in a sense,
    but we have been moving a lot more money and it is getting very
    expensive in the weather and atmospheric accounts. This is in
    part because NOAA is investing in very expensive equipment, and
    the satellite funding has increased by 59 percent since 2009
    while funding for the National Ocean Service has decreased by
    almost 14 percent.
        And as I said in Committee many times, we need to stop
    taking the ``ocean'' out of the National Oceanic and
    Atmospheric Administration. I noted once that we will just
    change the name to NAA. We won't have the oceans in NOAA
    anymore.
        But in so many respects our oceans and our coasts are among
    our greatest natural resources and largest public trust. Our
    national economy depends on it.
        In coastal states the highest economic region of those
    states is the coastline. For example, 80 percent of all of
    California's economy and wealth occurs along the coastline, an
    1100-mile coastline. Ocean issues are big politics in
    California.
        This Committee has served as the safeguard against the
    defunding of NOAA and the ocean and coastal programs in the
    past. For example, in 2010 $12.4 billion was allocated to ocean
    and coastal programs across all federal departments and
    agencies. This represented about .33 percent of the total
    federal budget. This is a relatively small investment, but it
    reaps incredibly great economic rewards.
        In 2010 the ocean economy contributed $258 billion to the
    U.S. gross domestic product. In 2010 the ocean economy
    supported 2.77 million jobs. In your state, Mr. Wolf, there
    were 116,000 jobs that were tied to the ocean economy in 2010.
    These Virginia-based jobs contributed $6.7 billion towards the
    national GDP. I don't have it for Texas, but I do have it for
    Mr. Fattah's state. In Pennsylvania, there were 41,000 jobs
    tied to the ocean economy in 2010, and these jobs produced $2.4
    billion towards the GDP. I think Texas would be even larger
    because your coastline is so large and because of all of the
    shipping that goes in and out of your coastline more so than
    these other states.
        So our national economy depends on continued funding for
    NOAA's ocean and coastal programs.
        And I want to thank you again, Mr. Wolf, because you
    supported the amendment during the FY12 funding cycle, and I
    really appreciate that. That amendment added $48 million back
    into NOAA's ocean and coastal programs. All it essentially did
    was take a one percent cut across the other accounts in order
    to fund these programs.
        So these are the programs that are within the ocean
    responsibility of NOAA, they are the research and management of
    programs that are important.
        We reauthorized the marine debris program because the
    Tsunami really brought a lot of debris to the Pacific coast.
    Representative Don Young worked really hard to address the
    docks and fishing boats that ended up on the Alaskan coastline
    and affected the fisheries there.
        We have created a Regional Ocean Partnerships Program. We
    have created a Fisheries Habitat Restoration Program and an
    Education Program, a national Sea Grant College Program. And we
    have a lot of Sea Grant Fellows here in Congress working in
    different congressional offices.
        I have a fellow named Noah working for me from NOAA under
    that program, under the Knauss Fellowship Program.
        We have the Cooperative Research Program, the National
    Estuarine Research Reserve System, the Integrated Ocean
    Observing Program, and the National Marine Sanctuary Program.
        We created a National Marine Sanctuary off the Monterey-
    Santa Cruz-San Mateo county coast and it is amazing how many
    people now want to come and learn about it. Fortunately, it
    spurred the ability to build the Monterey Bay Aquarium which
    helps interpret what is under the sea.
        I mean what is so fascinating about the oceans is that when
    you look out at it, it is a two dimensional plane. We have to
    interpret the rest of it, the three dimensional aspect of it.
    Currently, we can do that better for the stars and the planets.
    However, the sanctuary program really allows us to understand
    what lies beneath the two dimensional surface of the ocean so
    that we can protect it.
        A big issue on the west coast is the Pacific Salmon
    Protection Programs, and these programs are all the ones that
    we refunded in FY12. I hope that we will protect them again.
        So I really appreciate your interest in this. Obviously the
    east coast here is very concerned about the impacts on
    Chesapeake Bay and the cumulative annual losses of degraded
    water quality over the last three decades. It has wiped out
    oyster reefs, it has meant a loss of $4 billion to the
    economies of Virginia and Maryland.
        So reducing NOAA's coastal and ocean funding has dire
    economic consequences for our constituents, and I would
    appreciate your leadership in protecting the ocean side of NOAA
    in this budget.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.136

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.137

        Mr. Wolf. Sam, thank you for your testimony. We will do
    everything we can, and I want to thank you for your leadership.
    You do show up and I was at the aquarium as you know and out in
    Monterey and also I saw your dad's name, I think your dad was
    involved in that wasn't he? I saw your father's name on
    something when I was out in Monterey.
        Mr. Farr. His name is all over things out there. He was the
    State Senator who really took on environmental issues back in
    the 50s and 60s when it wasn't very popular.
        Mr. Wolf. Yeah. So any way, you have been very, very
    faithful and so we will do everything we can.
        Mr. Farr. Well, thank you, I appreciate your leadership.
        Mr. Wolf. Thanks.
        Mr. Farr. And I appreciate your colleague's leadership in
    science.
        Mr. Wolf. He has been very good.
        Mr. Farr. He just likes things that are millions and
    millions of years old.
        Mr. Wolf. And far away.
        LaDon Swann, Sea Grant Association.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                             SEA GRANT ASSOCIATION

                                    WITNESS

    LADON SWANN, PRESIDENT
        Mr. Swann. Good afternoon. Chairman and members of the
    subcommittee, my name is LaDon Swann. I am the director of the
    Mississippi-Alabama sea grant consortium. I am here in my
    capacity as president of the Sea Grant Association.
        I begin my remarks by thanking the subcommittee for its
    long-standing support of the NOAA sea grant program.
        Sea Grant works with university and state partners to help
    citizens understand, conserve, and better utilize America's
    coastal ocean and great lakes resources.
        Because of strong congressional support Sea Grant is
    meeting its core mission in support of NOAA by delivering many
    benefits to our ocean and coastal communities.
        In fiscal year 2012 alone Sea Grant helped deliver an
    estimated $170 million in direct economic benefits to the
    Nation, approximately 630 new businesses, and more than 3800
    jobs that were created or retained.
        Continue to provide economic and scientific benefits to
    coastal residents.
        The Sea Grant Association recommends that the sea grant
    program be funded for fiscal year 2014 at $70 million. This is
    $22 million below the authorized level for 2014.
        Sea Grant is an extremely efficient program. Approximately
    95 percent of the federal funding provided to Sea Grant goes to
    state programs where it is used to sponsor research, conduct
    extension and outreach programs, and deliver valuable services
    to states and universities that participate in the program.
        In addition for every two federal dollars invested at least
    one additional dollar is provided in non-federal match support.
        Sea Grant is a partnership of 32 programs and based at top
    universities in the national oceanic and atmospheric
    administration.
        Sea Grant draws on the experience of more than 3,000
    scientists, engineers, economists, public outreach experts,
    educators and students from more than 300 institutions.
        Sea Grant is able to make an impact to the local and state
    level.
        One of Sea Grant's great strengths is the integrity backed
    relationships formed in coastal communities and with local
    stakeholders. These have proved extremely beneficial during
    times of disaster, response, and recovery. Beginning with
    Hurricane Katrina and continuing with the deep water rise and
    oil spill and most recently with Hurricane Sandy.
        The Sea Grant network has provided much needed boots on the
    ground and trusted assistance to affected communities.
        Following each of these disasters it is often Sea Grant's
    training and programs that brought the first response to these
    affected communities.
        Our Nation must use its coastal resources wisely to
    increase the resilience of our costal communities and sustain
    the health and productivity of the ecosystems on which they
    depend.
        With the federal funding which will leverage additional
    state and local support Sea Grant is uniquely positioned to
    continue to make significant contributions to improve the lives
    and livelihoods of the Nation's coastal communities.
        Thank you for the opportunity to present these views. I
    would be happy to answer any questions or provide additional
    information to the subcommittee.
        [The information follows:]

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        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.141

        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much for your testimony.
        Mr. Swann. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Wolf. Scott Peters, Congressman Peters. Your full
    statement will appear in the record.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                             UNITED STATES CONGRESS

                                    WITNESS

    HON. SCOTT PETERS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF
        CALIFORNIA
        Mr. Peters. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate
    the opportunity to address you today.
        Through the appropriations process you have the ability to
    ensure that our science agencies are fully supported to grow
    our economy, and I urge you to fully fund our Nation's science
    and technology initiatives.
        These accounts have an extremely high rate of return and do
    more than anything to keep the United States innovative and
    prosperous.
        I know firsthand from my experience in San Diego that basic
    research and development funds are critical to innovation and
    national security and jobs, and I implore the committee to give
    adequate attention to federal basic science research funding.
        The San Diego economy is driven by tourism, the military,
    and science and technology.
        In fiscal year 2012 San Diego firms received more than $130
    million from the National Science Foundation. It is these
    critical investments that have helped San Diego earn the title
    of the second largest life sciences cluster in the United
    States.
        Thousands of American companies of all sizes are the
    product of federally funded research. Recently 100 companies
    were highlighted by The Science Coalition as getting their
    start from federal funding. Together they employ over 100,000
    people with annual revenues approaching $100 billion.
        In the 1980 Qualcomm received federal funding to conduct
    research enabling the fledgling company to attract capital and
    design and manufacture semiconductors for mobile phones among
    other products. And today Qualcomm employs 12,000 San Diegons
    and invests about $4 billion of its own money into research and
    development.
        If we are to compete for global talent we must keep
    investing in scientific research.
        As you may know in late 2008 China started its ``One
    Thousand Talents Program'' aimed to bring highly educated
    people, many of whom were educated abroad back to China.
    Academic and other research institutes have been encouraged to
    adopt similar programs which offer housing and research funding
    and other incentives to recruit talented students and
    researchers. That is what we have to complete with.
        My friends at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies gave
    me an example. They told me that for a kid today who is
    interested in science, it takes at least about when he or she
    is 40 years old or before they can get that lab where they can
    write those grants, that they can compete for funding. We used
    to fund about 25 percent of those grants and now fund about
    seven percent.
        And a person looking at that a landscape has to really
    wonder if the United States is really committed to science, and
    if this is a place for them to do science when so many other
    countries are offering much more committed and adequate funding
    streams than we are.
        So I strongly support funding for the National Science
    Foundation at the highest level.
        NSF research fuels San Diego's economy by supporting
    breakthroughs in bio medicine, physics, chemistry, engineering,
    economics, and other social sciences, as well as information,
    technology, telecommunications, and nanotechnology.
        Training in STEM, science, technology, engineering and math
    is critical to maintaining U.S. competitiveness and national
    security especially in industries like information technology,
    aeronautics, advanced energy systems, and biotechnology.
        Here is an example of ongoing research. A UCSD scientist is
    leading an NSF-funded team to study early childhood
    development. The UC system produces an average of four
    inventions per day for 1,000 R&D companies. Investments in NSF
    are investments in innovation.
        We all understand the budgetary landscape in which we must
    operate with regard to fiscal year 2014 and it is beyond
    challenging and requires difficult choices.
        For my own part I am willing to work together for a budget
    that cuts wasteful spending, addresses our long-term debt,
    creates a competitive tax code, keeps our military strong, and
    invests in our infrastructure, education, and in science to
    insure our competitiveness in the 21st century.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman for the opportunity to testify.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.142

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.143

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.144

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.145

        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        This committee has funded the National Science Foundation
    at the highest level it has ever been funded. Zero, period, no
    question.
        Mr. Peters. Right.
        Mr. Wolf. From both sides of the aisle.
        Until we deal with the entitlements, until you are prepared
    to raise the retirement age for social security, until you are
    prepared to pass something like Simpson-Bowles these programs
    will continue to get squeezed and squeezed. We have had to cut
    other programs----
        Mr. Peters. Uh-huh.
        Mr. Wolf [continuing]. Other programs. We have prisons now
    whereby prison guards are being killed.
        But until we deal with the entitlements, until we can come
    together in a grand package you are going to see significant
    cuts are coming.
        Mr. Peters. Mr. Chairman----
        Mr. Wolf. There is no other way about it.
        Mr. Peters [continuing]. I understand, I would just offer
    that I am a supporter of the Simpson-Bowles approach.
        Mr. Wolf. I know you were, I saw your name down there.
        Mr. Peters. Okay.
        Mr. Wolf. And I think the Simpson-Bowles is the only
    thing--I said anybody. It is easy to criticize and talk about
    what the problem is, but you have got to tell us what your
    solution is, and the only solution that I have seen, there may
    be a better one, maybe somebody has a better idea, but the
    outline, Simpson-Bowles is not the ten commandments.
        Mr. Peters. Right.
        Mr. Wolf. I mean, you know, you can--but if we don't do
    something big and grand and bold like that, and it troubles me,
    I have 16 grandkids, I worry about their future.
        And we are going to be--but this committee so your mind is
    put at ease, we have funded--Mr. Fattah has been there too, it
    has been bipartisan, NSF has been at the highest, highest
    level.
        But any way thank you for your testimony.
        Mr. Peters. I look forward to working with you. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Thanks. Thank you very much.
        Dr. Russ Lea, National Ecological Observatory Network. Yes,
    sir.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                    NATIONAL ECOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY NETWORK

                                    WITNESS

    DR. RUSS LEA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
        Dr. Lea. Thank you, Chairman Wolf.
        Chairman Wolf, Ranking Member Fattah, and members of the
    subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to testify.
        My name is Dr. Russell Lea and I am the CEO of NEON, Inc. I
    appreciate the opportunity to appear before this subcommittee
    and to ask your support for the NEON project.
        The project is funded under the National Science
    Foundation's MREFC account with an estimated fiscal year 2014
    request of $98 million.
        On behalf of the scientific community who will be using
    NEON thank you for the strong support that Congress has
    provided to the National Science Foundation, the NEON project,
    and the core funding for the National Science Foundation's
    biological sciences directorate.
        NEON is a world-class distributed environmental observatory
    at the frontiers of science and engineering. Its sites are
    located throughout the U.S., and in the region locations
    include the Blandy Experimental Farm in Virginia's
    congressional district 10, the nearby Smithsonian Conservation
    Biology Institute, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research
    Center in Maryland.
        NSF has clearly stated its no cost overruns policy for
    scientific facilities. For each year of NEON's construction we
    are required to produce a detailed budget and a schedule
    profile that is reviewed by NSF and its panels.
        The observatory is approaching the middle of its approved
    construction profile, estimated out-year costs are expected to
    start with $98 million in fiscal year 2014. This amount could
    change once the Administration releases its budget request, but
    changes to that profile will impact the contracts and
    agreements to industry for work that is currently in progress.
    Such delays will ultimately increase the cost of a project, and
    if funding falls below what is needed to build out the
    observatory it will jeopardize a construction at a number of
    locations.
        This is potentially damaging because the constellation of
    the NEON sites together function as a single integrated
    instrument.
        NEON is a shared vision by the scientific community to
    build this one of a kind observatory to listen to the pulse of
    the U.S. continental ecosystem.
        Congressional support has gotten us to the point where a
    number of observatories are currently in place with more being
    constructed every single day.
        We have an obligation to execute this project and deliver a
    fully functional, fully scoped observatory to insure this
    Nation is equipped with the highest quality data to cope with
    an ever changing environment.
        Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.146

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.147

        Mr. Wolf. Okay. Thank you very much for your testimony. I
    appreciate it.
        Judith Bond, Federation of American Societies for
    Experimental Biology.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

           FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SOCIETIES FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY

                                    WITNESS

    JUDITH S. BOND, PH.D., PRESIDENT
        Ms. Bond. Thank you very much.
        We understand the constraints you are under, but we have
    to-- we feel passionately, I think all these people in here
    about what we need and future generations.
        Mr. Wolf. And I am glad you feel passionately, but----
        Ms. Bond. So we have to----
        Mr. Wolf [continuing]. You have to feel passionate about
    reforming the entitlements too, because----
        Ms. Bond. Absolutely. I understand.
        Mr. Wolf [continuing]. I am not going to ask you how old
    you are, but even here----
        Ms. Bond. Old enough.
        Mr. Wolf [continuing]. Maybe add 12 years to your age. At
    that time every penny goes for Medicare, Medicare, social
    security, and interest on the debt, and the interest payments
    will be about $10 billion a week of--that is interest. And
    imagine what we could do with all the programs and we could
    just do amazing things.
        But I am glad you a passionate, but we are going have to
    deal with that.
        Ms. Bond. To get it done.
        So let me just tell you a little bit about my background. I
    am a professor and former chair of biochemistry and molecular
    biology at Penn State University in Hershey.
        Mr. Wolf. I have heard of that place.
        Ms. Bond. You have heard of that place?
        Before that I was at Virginia Commonwealth University in
    Virginia Tech. But I come here today in my capacity as
    president of FASEB, the Federation.
        This is an umbrella organization of 26 life science
    societies, and we represent more than 100,000 researchers, all
    of who feel passionately about research and education.
        And we request--our request our ask is for a budget of $7.4
    billion for NSF. That is an increase, a small increase, but it
    will fund like 324 new investigators, a lot of students and
    future investigators and problem solvers, and that is why we
    ask for this. It is a goal.
        NSF is the only federal research agency dedicated to
    advancing fundamental research and education across all fields
    of science and engineering, and it is a primary funder for
    fields like mathematics, computer science, chemistry, basic
    biology with application to well being in the social sciences.
        In addition it undertakes efforts to strengthen science
    technology and engineering, mathematics, education. So it is
    the future of our science.
        These grants are awarded with very high peer review systems
    for all states, merit review, and the proposals are evaluated
    both on scientific basis and societal value.
        So even though we have these unprecedented fiscal
    challenges we need to keep our Nation globally competitive and
    enable economic growth that is borne out of these discoveries
    and innovation. We can't cut everything and keep on going down.
    We have to invest in something.
        NSF insures the development of a world-class engineering
    workforce of future generations, and it is for universities, it
    is for tech companies, it is for all kinds of economic growth
    engines.
        It is a crucial source of scientific breakthroughs and this
    also fuels other mission organizations. And the failure to
    build is that we will slow the pace of discovery, discourage
    the next generation, and sacrifice our position as a global
    leader. We have heard that from a number of people and I think
    Representative Peters said it very well.
        Therefore that is why we are going to recommend this $7.4
    billion and do anything we can do help you get there. We are a
    resource for data, we have, you know, these 100,000 scientists
    who would be glad to come and talk to your colleagues and to
    help in any way we can.
        But it is the intellectual capital, it is the innovation,
    and it is the future of science in our country that we are
    fighting for.
        [The information follows:]

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.148

        [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1720A.149

        Mr. Wolf. Well, I agree, and again, we have funded NSF at
    the highest level ever.
        And you can ask those 100,000 scientists to write their
    members of Congress to ask them to support something like the
    Simpson-Bowles Commission. Because once we do something like
    that it will take the pressure off the domestic discretionary,
    it will just allow us to do precisely what you are saying.
        Do you still live in Happy Valley or----
        Ms. Bond. No, I moved down south, North Carolina, the
    Research Triangle area. But I still go up--go back up quite a
    bit.
        Mr. Wolf. Good. Thank you.
        Ms. Bond. And you will have somebody else from Penn State
    here.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you for your testimony this morning.
        Ms. Bond. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Elizabeth Rogan, Optical Society.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                                OPTICAL SOCIETY

                                    WITNESS

    ELIZABETH ROGAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
        Ms. Rogan. Good afternoon, Chairman Wolf and staff and it
    is an honor to be here with colleagues, and it was great to see
    Matthew Perry here this morning, and we realize, we took a
    small poll and thought maybe we should have the actors from the
    Big Bang Theory come next time. They have done more for science
    education than any other PR campaign that I know of.
        My name is Elizabeth Rogan I am the CEO of the Optical
    Society and I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the
    fiscal budget for NSF and NIST.
        And I have heard you loud and clear listening to your
    comments on the support that you have given the NSF and NIST
    and the challenges, and I am hoping I begin to make the case of
    what optics and photonics can do to help with the budget
    problems.
        So optics and photonics is a highly specialized area of
    physics and engineering known as the science of light, and it
    makes possible high speed internet, life saving imagining
    health devices, LED, solar energy, and I think you know that
    because you know so much about the science business. And this
    is a science that NSF and NIST have helped underwrite and fund
    and it does solve problems. It does innovate competition, it
    does help the economy.
        This last past summer, Mr. Chairman, the National Academy
    of Sciences worked on a report called ``Optics and Photonics:
    Essential Technologies for our Nation,'' and this group came
    together and came back with five challenges this country faces
    to maintain its competitiveness.
        One of them for instance was broadband telecom. I just came
    in this morning from the largest scientifically run telecom
    conference in the world and they are working on amazing things
    like cybersecurity, silicon photonics, datacom efforts.
        These are--we have got companies that are engaged in
    working on these areas and growing because of the funding that
    NSF did ten years or five years ago in these areas. It is just
    incredible to see the innovation that is happening.
        These two agencies as you know are just critical for a lot
    of activities, but the economies that you are talking about
    there is a real case to be made here, so NIST is the leading
    agency for this, NNMI, the National Network for Manufacturing
    Initiatives, and this is an organization that is going to
    create a manufacturing and research infrastructure here in this
    country that helps support industry, that comes up with a way
    that we can keep industry here, we can keep sales here, we can
    keep jobs here.
        Last year there was a pilot program called Additive
    Manufacturing, it is 3D printing, you have heard about this,
    and it is amazing, it is amazing technology that builds
    products from scratch, micro level products, and it creates
    things, it saves waste, it saves on all kinds of abilities for
    budgets in this case, and it creates, you know, engine parts
    for jets, all kinds of things, but it is very, very creative.
        Researchers at MIT developed something called the 3D Light
    Switch and it is a technique that was funded by NSF that
    manipulates neurons for light. And again, this is another life
    saving device. But it is not only for protecting lives and
    making our lifestyles better, it really does help the economy.
    It builds jobs, it creates a tax incentive that these companies
    and individuals will be able to pay taxes with the investments
    that have been done by NSF.
        And this committee has been terrific in pioneering and
    championing continuous funding for these areas which I know you
    know that we need. And as a member of the science community we
    so appreciate your support and we are here to do whatever we
    can to help.
        We hear you loud and clear. And we really appreciate the
    opportunity to be a witness today.
        Thank you.
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        Mr. Wolf. Well, thank you. We will continue, and I wish
    every member here hears what we are saying because I think it
    would put in perspective to say we have got to resolve this
    thing quickly.
        Ms. Rogan. Uh-huh.
        Mr. Wolf. If we keep cutting the sciences and cutting the
    different things the Nation--frankly we had Niall Ferguson here
    who said great nations begin to decline very rapidly.
        Ms. Rogan. That is right.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much.
        Ms. Rogan. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Wolf. Dr. Thomas Bogdon, University Center for
    Atmospheric Research.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                   UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH

                                    WITNESS

    DR. THOMAS J. BOGDON, PRESIDENT
        Dr. Bogdon. Good afternoon, Chairman Wolf, Mr. Culberson,
    it is a pleasure to be here.
        I am Thomas Bogdon, I am the president of the University
    Corporation for Atmospheric Research and I represent nearly 100
    academic research institutions across this country that
    collectively manage the national center for atmospheric
    research for the national science foundation.
        I want to begin by thanking the subcommittee for its long-
    standing support of research and education at NSF, NASA, and
    NOAA.
        As Superstorm Sandy takes its place in history over the
    last few months we should consider what the impact of Sandy
    might have been on the mid Atlantic states if that storm had
    hit some 50 years earlier say in October of 1963.
        It might well have disrupted the 1963 World Series between
    the Yankees and the Dodgers, or it might have played havoc with
    the Giants/Cowboys football game at Yankee Stadium, or it might
    just a killed tens of thousands of people.
        Fifty years after hurricane forecasts extended two days
    into the future, computer models and weather satellites were in
    their infancy, and forecasters have not foreseen the
    unprecedented left hook that Sandy took into New Jersey. That
    is because we lack the sophisticated weather information and
    systems that made it possible to make the right call on Sandy.
        That enabled our citizens to prepare and take actions,
    actions that made a difference between life and death for
    millions of people along the east coast.
        What did we do, what did you do to position us to be in the
    position to make such a forecast?
        You chose to invest in the science and technology and
    education from the basic research and mathematics and computer
    science to the development of satellites and instrumentation
    that made vital observations.
        We then ran those observing data through advanced computers
    which turned that intelligence into life saving information.
        These advances are important, because as you know, today we
    are more vulnerable to the severe storms than we were in 1963.
    We have seen the deadliest hurricane and tornado outbreaks
    since the beginning of the 20th century, we have many people
    living in coastal areas, we are dependent on a communication
    system that is easily disrupted by storms and extreme events,
    and we are also very much dependent on the power grid for
    everything from transportation to commerce to sophisticated
    medical care, all of which are vulnerable to the extreme
    weather events.
        But it was not the investment in computing satellite
    technology that delivered this life saving information, it was
    our investment in the environmental sciences including weather,
    climate, and ocean research, as well as the social sciences
    that help people to respond to those warnings in ways that made
    sense and saved lives and livelihood. And it was the innovation
    that enabled us to distill all that information so that it
    could be presented to our people, to your constituents with or
    without smartphones in a way that they could understand it.
        As you have said yourself our Nation is having a debate
    regarding its fiscal future that will impact every citizen here
    today as well as future generations.
        As part of that debate you have said yourself we are
    preparing to cut spending in nearly every part of the budget
    including research and development.
        At a time when science is growing more capable of providing
    better and timelier forecasts is reducing our best research
    really the best way to prepare for a storm that could impact
    the U.S.?
        We should use Sandy as a teachable moment and ask are we
    investing sufficiently in our research enterprise to enable us
    to accurately forecast the storms of tomorrow and are we really
    ready to walk away from the investments in our research
    enterprise that we made over the last 50 years? Investments
    which have served us as the foundation of our Nation's future,
    economic, and national security.
        I hope you will continue to invest in the research
    enterprise so that some 50 years from now our children, their
    children, your children and grandchildren will find themselves
    in more economic opportunity, environmental stability, improved
    health care, and a better future.
        Thanks for your attention.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you very much for your testimony. I
    appreciate it very much.
        Dr. Jonathan Lynch, American Society of Plant Biologist,
    professor of plant nutrition, Penn State University. Welcome.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                      AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PLANT BIOLOGISTS

                                    WITNESS

    DR. JONATHAN LYNCH, PROFESSOR OF PLANT NUTRITION
        Dr. Lynch. Thank you, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Wolf. There must be snow on the ground in Happy Valley
    now isn't there?
        Dr. Lynch. There is. It is surprisingly cold.
        Mr. Wolf. Yeah.
        Dr. Lynch. Thank you for inviting me to testify on the
    fiscal year 2014 NSF budget.
        My name is Jonathan Lynch, professor of plant nutrition at
    Penn State University.
        I appear before you today on behalf of the American Society
    of Plant Biologists, 4,500 researchers and educators from
    around the U.S. and around the globe.
        Our goal is to promote research and education on plant
    biology and promote the interests of plant scientists.
        First of all we would like to thank you very much, thank
    this committee for its strong support of NSF budget last year.
        We recognize as we have discussed several times in this
    session the dire fiscal constraints that we are confronting as
    a Nation for these discretionary funds; however, we also
    believe, as I believe I believe you share, that these
    investments are critical for economic, you know, revival and
    global competitiveness.
        NSF supported research in plant biology is developing more
    sustainable ways to produce food, fiber, fuel, and a
    sustainable way national resource management and making basic
    scientific discoveries that are important for human health and
    nutrition.
        Because of this we hope that your strong support for NSF
    budget will continue in this fiscal year.
        I would like to share with you just an example of what NSF
    funding has meant for my own research program.
        My goal is to develop crops with greater tolerance to
    drought and low soil fertility. That is important in developing
    countries where these are primary constraints to food security
    and they are important in the United States since drought is
    the principal risk to crop production and fertilizer is the
    principal cost both environment and economic cost of crop
    production.
        NSF investments in our program over the past 20 years have
    enabled us to develop new varieties of common bean and soybean
    that have double and tripled the yield of previous varieties
    under these stressful conditions that are being grown
    throughout the world.
        We have discovered traits, that root traits of corn that
    allows these plants to grow much better under drought and low
    soil fertility that are being used to breed better crops for
    Africa and are of interest to the U.S. seed industry.
        These crop improvements will be important assets in the
    future when agriculture will have to sustain a larger
    population with improved--with increased input costs and the
    likelihood of more extreme weather.
        The NSF directorate to biological sciences (BIO) is of
    course the main funder of non-medical biological research in
    U.S. colleges and universities. Plant biology research under
    BIO, such as bread basic research to enable agricultural
    development, which is a partnership with the Bill and Melinda
    Gates Foundation, and the plant research program have been very
    important in advancing this field.
        Additionally, of course as has been mentioned before in the
    session, NSF is a major source of funding for turning an
    education of the scientific workforce.
        Therefore, the ASPB urges the committee to support
    educational programs at NSF including graduate research
    fellowships, postgraduate fellowships, and early career
    fellowships.
        Here again, I want to share with you briefly, my experience
    is very fortunate in my career I am able to work with young
    people who are very bright and motivated who are just itching
    to make an impact on these problems we face, and these types of
    programs with NSF are very important for the opportunities
    these people have to pursue their careers.
        Of course America's challenges in energy, agriculture, and
    health cannot be solved in a few years, they require sustained
    investment as this committee is aware. And we believe these
    investments will yield results both in the near term and the
    long term.
        Thank you very much.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Thank you. Thank you very much for your
    testimony.
        Mr. Culberson. Mr. Wolf, one question?
        Mr. Wolf. Sure, go ahead.
        Mr. Culberson. Excuse me, very quickly.
        How close are we to developing plants for hydrogen around
    the atmosphere?
        Dr. Lynch. Well, of course some plants can do that. Now the
    Gates Foundation has made a large investment just recently in
    trying to get corn to do that, and that is going to be a long-
    term project, a high risk project, but that could be a very
    significant advancement obviously. I would guess more like 25
    years. Yes.
        If it was easy for plants to do this they would have
    figured out how to do this already over 450 million years of
    evolution.
        Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
        Jeffery Rudolph of American Alliance of Museums.
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

                          AMERICAN ALLIANCE OF MUSEUMS

                                    WITNESS

    JEFFERY RUDOLPH, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER
        Mr. Rudolph. Chairman Wolf, Mr. Culberson, thank you for
    inviting me to testify today.
        I am Jeff Rudolph, president and CEO of the California
    Science Center.
        I have previously served as chair of the board of the
    American Alliance and Museums and also the Association of
    Science Technology Centers.
        I am here on behalf of the museum community, including the
    association of science museum directors to request that the
    subcommittee continue its strong support of informal STEM
    education by investing in the National Science Foundation's
    Advancing Informal STEM Learning or AISL program and informal
    science education efforts of NOAA and NASA.
        AISL received $61.4 million in fiscal year 2012. I strongly
    concur with the request made by Bud Rock, CEO of the
    Association of Science and Technology Centers, in his written
    testimony requesting report language to clearly direct NSF to
    return the focus of the AISL program to support a public
    engagement in science. This will reverse the recent trend of
    focusing AISL funding on formally university led research at
    the expense of effective educational and public engagement
    program and conduct it through museums and others such as
    public television and radio.
        As you know STEM education is critical to our Nation's
    economic strength and global competitiveness. Museums
    throughout the country play a vital role in our Nation's STEM
    education efforts.
        In its 2009 record learning science and informal
    environments the National Research Council and National
    Academies found powerful evidence in support of the value of
    and need for STEM learning in non-school settings. It also
    found that informal learning in museums can have a significant
    impact on science learning outcomes for those historically
    under represented in the STEM fields.
        At the California Science Center we serve about two million
    guests annually. Our sole focus is to stimulate curiosity and
    to inspire science learning. It is our expertise to communicate
    science and inspire interest in science.
        We conducted 24 studies over a ten-year period in an effort
    to measure our impact on science learning in our community. The
    research which was recently published in the Journal of
    Research on Science Teaching found that we have had a
    significant impact on science learning with more than 79
    percent of parents reporting their children's science center
    experience increased their interest in and understanding of
    science.
        The impact of the California Science Center on children
    from under represented and low income families was found to be
    even greater.
        Similar outcomes can be found in museums across the nation
    including the center at the Smithsonian and districts--museums
    across the country in almost all of your districts I believe.
        AISL grants have provided critical investments in research
    and development of innovative and field advancing out of school
    STEM learning.
        Support for programs such as the Franklin Institute Science
    and Museum and Prelibrary of Philadelphia's after-school
    program engaging children and families from diverse audiences
    in science and literacy's provide important support for
    advancing the field and our ability to inspire and motivate the
    next generation of scientists, engineers, and explorers.
        Again, I appreciate the opportunity testify and I encourage
    you to recognize the importance of STEM education provided by
    museums and science centers across the Nation.
        I also encourage your support of continued funding the AISL
    program at its current level, and inclusion of report language
    to clearly direct NSF to use the AISL program to continue
    support of engaging the public in STEM learning.
        I would be happy to answer any questions.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. When I was a kid I used to go to the Franklin
    Institute a couple times a year.
        Mr. Rudolph. Great.
        Mr. Wolf. It was amazing.
        Anyway, I appreciate your testimony, I am very grateful.
    Thank you very much.
        Mr. Rudolph. Thank you. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. The last witness, I think the drum roll comes
    with Christopher Lawson, Ph.D., Alabama Experimental Program to
    Stimulate Competitive Research. And you are the last one. But
    it says in the Bible ``the last shall be first.''
                                  ----------

                                              Thursday, March 21, 2013.

         ALABAMA EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM TO STIMULATE COMPETITIVE RESEARCH

                                    WITNESS

    CHRISTOPHER LAWSON, PH.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
        Mr. Lawson. That is right. So I appreciate the drum roll.
        So, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee my name is
    Christopher Lawson and I am the physics professor at UAB, the
    University of Alabama at Birmingham.
        Mr. Wolf. Do you have a football team down there?
        Mr. Lawson. No, that is the one at Tuscaloosa.
        Mr. Wolf. Oh, you are in Birmingham.
        Mr. Lawson. That is right. And I also serve as executive
    director of Alabama ESPCoR.
        So thank you for this opportunity to testify about NSF
    EPSCoR and NASA EPSCoR ,and for fiscal year 2014 we
    respectfully request the $160 million for the NSF EPSCoR budget
    and $25 million for the NASA EPSCoR budget.
        Congress established the EPSCoR program to ensure that
    research universities in all states participate in federal
    science and technology activities. Although EPSCoR states have
    20 percent of the Nation's population and close to 25 percent
    of the doctoral research universities these states only receive
    about 10 percent of the federal research outlays. EPSCoR
    provides a mechanism to address these geographic imbalances.
        The program has been a huge success, investments have
    generated growth in state economies, attracted students in the
    STEM fields, and created a broader base of high-tech research
    expertise.
        In my home state of Alabama NSF EPSCoR funding has
    generated revolutionary advancements in science and engineering
    that led to new business growth and new jobs. For example,
    EPSCoR funded research at UAB has ceded a new type ultra
    sensitive laser optical nose that can sniff environmental
    toxins from spills caused by natural disasters, it may also
    able enable long-range laser sniffing of explosives such as
    roadside IEDs to protect our troops.
        This new technology led directly to the creation of new
    multi-million dollar start up company in Alabama.
        NSF EPSCoR dollars have introduced more than 2,000
    individuals across Alabama to science and technology concepts
    in the last year alone.
        In a time when the President and Congress talk about the
    urgency of getting more of our students engaged in STEM fields
    it only makes sense to build on this success by continuing to
    fund NES EPSCoR at $160 million.
        Like its NSF companion Congress designed NASA EPSCoR to
    increase the research capacity of states with little NASA
    research involvement.
        The program helps states compete for funding in areas that
    are directly relevant to NASA's mission in earth and space
    science, human space flight, and aerospace technology. For
    example, NASA EPSCoR research at the University of Alabama, the
    one with the football team, on fluid dynamics has potential to
    reduce air flow drag by 30 percent. A one percent reduction in
    drag can save an airline company $100,000 to $200,000 in fuel
    per year per aircraft, thus this research could ultimately
    reduce the Nation's dependency on fossil fuels, CO2
    emissions in the atmosphere, and of course reduce cost.
        Funding the NASA EPSCoR program at last year's request
    level of $25 million will help to development additional new
    types of NASA-related technologies for additional economic
    growth.
        At a time of economic challenge ands tight budgets that you
    have talked about so much programs like EPSCoR that seek a
    broader distribution of research funding makes solid fiscal
    sense. Limiting these resources to only a few states and
    institutions is self-defeating for our Nation in the long run.
        NSF and NASA EPSCoR help all states to benefit from
    taxpayer investments and federal research and development and
    they generate long-term growth in a skilled workplace for the
    future.
        NSF and NASA EPSCoR stretch limited federal dollars farther
    through state matching. Not only do states benefit from
    increased research capacity and growth, but our Nation benefits
    from the rich and diverse pool of talent that our entire
    country can provide.
        At a time when 33 percent of all bachelor's degrees in
    China are in engineering compared to four and a half percent in
    the U.S., if we are to remain globally competitive instead of
    restricting ourselves to only a few states and a few
    institutions we need to be training and harnessing all of our
    Nation's brain power and EPSCoR working to achieve that goal.
        I thank you for inviting me to testify.
        [The information follows:]

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        Mr. Wolf. Well, Mr. Rudolph thank you very much and I want
    to thank you for your testimony.
        I want to thank all our witnesses that have testified here
    today. It has been a very compelling day. But thank you very
    much.
        Mr. Rudolph. Thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. And with that the hearing is adjourned.

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