[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 109 (Thursday, July 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6204-S6206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WHITEHOUSE (for himself, Ms. Snowe, and Mr. Rockefeller):
  S. 3641. A bill to create the National Endowment for the Oceans to 
promote the protection and conservation of United States ocean, 
coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I rise to discuss bipartisan 
legislation coauthored by my friend and fellow New Englander, Olympia 
Snowe, to establish a national endowment for the preservation, 
conservation, and restoration of our Nation's oceans, our coasts, and 
our Great Lakes. I also wish to take a moment and say a particular 
thank-you to an original cosponsor of this legislation, the chairman of 
the Commerce Committee, Senator Rockefeller of West Virginia.
  The National Endowment for the Oceans, along with the President's 
recent Executive order establishing our country's first ever national 
ocean policy, represent a long overdue and badly needed commitment to 
our great waters. While the President's national ocean policy specifies 
national objectives and outlines processes and government structures to 
restore, protect, and maintain our ocean and coastal resources, the 
National Endowment for the Oceans will provide the funding to actually 
achieve those public purposes. The endowment would make grants 
available to coastal and Great Lakes States, local government agencies, 
regional planning bodies, academic institutions, and nonprofit 
organizations so these entities could embark on projects to learn more 
about and do a better job of protecting our precious natural resources.
  Author C. Clarke once said:

       How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is 
     quite clearly ocean.

  Oceans cover three-quarters of our planet's surface, contain 90 
percent of our planet's water, and produce more than two-thirds of our 
planet's oxygen. For as long as mankind has lived on the lands of this 
planet, oceans have sustained our survival and been part of our 
identity.
  Speaking at a dinner in Newport, RI, in 1961, President Kennedy said:

       We are tied to the ocean . . . and when we go back to the 
     sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back 
     from whence we came.

  My State, and indeed our country, always have kept a special bond 
with those great waters.
  As a practical matter, my State's economy, as do many others, relies 
on Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound to provide the jobs for 
fishing, shipbuilding, tourism, and soon, we hope, wind farming. Across 
America, coastal waters generate over 50 percent of our Nation's gross 
domestic product and support more than 28 million jobs.
  So we don't call Rhode Island the Ocean State just because of its 
beautiful coasts and beaches. Although as a sailor and proud ambassador 
for Rhode Island's tourism industry, I will tell my colleagues that 
Rhode Island's coast is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. We 
are the Ocean State because from our earliest days we have relied on 
the ocean and our beloved Narragansett Bay for trade, for food, for 
jobs, for recreation, and for solace and inspiration.
  In part, it is Americans' love of the oceans that drives the need now 
to protect and restore them. Coastal America is experiencing a huge 
population boom, leading to more and more construction that puts 
significant pressure on our natural coastline and our wetlands. 
Worldwide demand for seafood grows at a pace that our fish stocks 
cannot keep pace with, and our demand for energy leads us deeper and 
deeper into the ocean in search of fuel.
  For too long, we have been takers from our oceans rather than 
caretakers of our oceans, and the evidence of our peril is mounting.
  From the Arctic Ocean, where ice sheets that have been part of Inuit 
lore as far back as memory and oral tradition go, are now disappearing, 
to the tropic seas, where coral reefs that serve as nurseries for ocean 
life are bleaching and dying, warnings are ringing.
  From the far-off waters of the Pacific, where a garbage gyre of 
accumulated marine litter has grown larger than the State of Texas, to 
our near coasts such as Rhode Island's own Narragansett Bay where the 
water temperature has risen 4 degrees in the winter in the last 40 
years, an ecosystem shift displacing our historic fisheries, warnings 
are ringing.
  From the top of the oceanic food chain, where pollutants are turning 
our marine mammals into swimming toxic waste and major pelagic species 
have suffered a 90-percent population crash, to the very bottom of the 
food chain where greenhouse gases change the fundamental chemistry of 
our oceans until they may become too acidic to support the plankton 
base of the food chain, real warnings are ringing.
  Our present day ocean is more acidic today than it has been in 8,000 
centuries. A change in ocean chemistry

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happening so quickly, we don't know if species will be able to adapt in 
time to survive. Even if we were to act immediately to curb our carbon 
pollution, the stress on these ecosystems will certainly worsen for 
some time from what we have already put into our atmosphere.
  So from the far Arctic to the warm tropics, from the far ocean to the 
near coasts, from the top of the food chain to the bottom, real warning 
bells are ringing.
  We can't begin to know what the total effects on our oceans will be, 
but what we have observed so far must be deeply troubling to any 
prudent, thoughtful person.
  If you have been to the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Providence, you 
have seen a large plaque on the wall in the lobby marking the high 
water mark of the great hurricane of 1938 when a massive storm surge 
filled downtown Providence and the hotel lobby to a depth of about 5 
feet. Sea level rise, another ocean threat, could mean that future 
storm surges crest much higher, wreaking far worse devastation.
  That is a threat that is not unique to Rhode Island. Island nations 
around the globe are currently preparing for the possibility--really, 
the inevitability--that they will literally be engulfed by the ocean.
  The National Intelligence Council reports that at least 30 American 
military installations around the world will be underwater if sea 
levels rise as projected. There is a dangerous feedback loop. The more 
ice that melts, the greater the danger. As darker ocean water traps 
rather than reflects the Sun's rays, melting accelerates and leaves us 
with less and less time to act, less and less time to spare our 
grandchildren the consequences of our generation's selfishness and 
folly.
  Even seemingly modest changes in temperature, such as the 4 degree 
increase in Narragansett Bay, wreak havoc on marine ecosystems, causing 
what amounts to a full ecosystem shift. Anybody who relies on marine 
life for food, recreation, or a paycheck may soon find their lives 
changed by the disruption of the ocean's delicate ecosystem.
  As a member of the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public 
Works, I find myself habitually frustrated that this ``tragedy of the 
commons'' continues to play out, while we stand idly on the sidelines 
and fail to intervene.
  As a source of jobs and economic opportunity, a key element of our 
American tradition and, truly, the origin of life on our planet, our 
oceans, and our responsibility for them, ought to occupy a more 
prominent place on our national agenda.
  Yet, our commitment to ocean and coastal preservation is unreliable 
at best--subject to the volatility of the yearly budget and 
appropriations process. None other than Robert Ballard, the famed ocean 
explorer who discovered the Titanic and is current president of the 
Ocean Exploration Trust, recently lamented that available funds for 
ocean research often fall far short of desired goals.
  As we stand here and BP's oil poisons our Gulf of Mexico, it is time 
to ask our political system to put the stewardship of our natural 
resources, our ocean resources, at the forefront of our national 
agenda. In the past, Congress had established lasting endowments to 
protect other important American priorities.
  Because we believe that a great society must cherish artistic 
expression and study closely the lessons of history, we established--
through the wisdom of Senator Claiborne Pell--the National Endowment 
for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Because we 
believe that a great society must connect communities to each other, we 
established a national highway trust fund. Because we believe that a 
great society must guarantee its elders a dignified and comfortable 
retirement after a lifetime of work, we established Social Security. 
Because we are indeed tied to our great waters, we should now act to 
establish a national endowment for the oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes.
  This legislation, as I said, is bipartisan. I thank Senator Olympia 
Snowe for joining in this effort. This legislation is science based, 
with much of the money made available through a competitive grant 
program that will award funding to research undertaken by academic 
institutions, on-the-ground conservation by nonprofit organizations, 
and local governments, and protection of critical public 
infrastructure.
  This legislation is cost effective, coordinating existing efforts of 
Federal, local, and private programs, reducing duplication of research 
efforts, and crossing political borders to ensure that every dollar is 
spent with the greatest possible effect.
  This legislation is appropriately paid for with revenue generated 
from the oilspill liability trust fund, Outer Continental Shelf 
drilling, offshore renewable energy development, and fines collected 
for violations of the Federal law off our coastline. Put simply, a 
small portion of the revenue extracted from our oceans and great waters 
must be reinvested to now protect their long-term viability.
  The ocean provides us with great bounty, and we will continue to take 
advantage of the ocean's bounty, as we should. We will fish, we will 
sail, and we will trade. We will dispose of waste. We will extract fuel 
and construct wind farms. We will put pressure on our oceans. Navies 
and cruise ships, sailboats and supertankers, will plow their surface. 
We cannot change that part of our relationship with the sea.
  What we can change is what we do in return. We can, for the first 
time, give back. We can become stewards of our oceans--not just takers, 
but caretakers.
  My wife, Sandra, is a marine biologist. We have watched as the 
University of Rhode Island, home of the Graduate School of 
Oceanography, has become a world leader in understanding our oceans and 
how to conserve them.
  We are watching GSO's researchers struggle to keep up with rapid 
changes reshaping the ecosystems they study. This endowment will help 
science keep pace with change.
  The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration received $167 million 
for coastal restoration projects under the Recovery Act last year. More 
than 800 proposals for shovel-ready projects came in, totaling $3 
billion. But NOAA could only fund 50. This endowment will help us move 
forward with those projects that protect our oceans and drive our 
economy.
  The oceans contain the potential for new discoveries, the potential 
for new jobs, and the potential for new solutions to the emerging 
crisis off our shores.
  But it is time to act. I urge my colleagues to join Senator Snowe and 
myself in support of this legislation. Let ours be the generation that 
tips the increasingly troubling balance between mankind and the oceans, 
from whence we came, a little bit back toward the benefit of our 
oceans.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, as I rise today to join Senator Whitehouse 
in introducing the National Endowment for the Oceans Act, our Nation 
continues to bear the brunt of what has now become the biggest offshore 
oil spill in recorded history. Since April 20, 2010, when the mobile 
offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank 50 miles off 
the coast of Louisiana, claiming the lives of 11 men, as much as 180 
million gallons of oil has spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. The 
ecosystem, environment, and the culture of the Gulf coast region will 
feel the effects of this spill for decades to come in the aftermath of 
an event that has focused National attention on one of our most 
productive, beautiful, and beloved resources: our oceans and coasts. I 
also want to acknowledge the support of the Chair of the Senate 
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Senator Rockefeller 
for his cosponsorship of this initiative.
  As Ranking Member on the Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, 
Fisheries, and Coast Guard, and as a Senator from a state which relies 
heavily on our marine and coastal resources, I have long appreciated 
the tremendous value of America's oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. 
Throughout my time in this body I have pursued policies that would 
enhance our stewardship of these treasured regions, and permit 
sustainable use of the bounty they provide. This legislation would 
ensure a brighter future for these areas that heal our souls and drive 
our economy.
  Investment in our oceans is investment in our future. The United 
States' exclusive economic zone, encompassing

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the area 200 miles out from our shores, covers more of the earth's 
surface than our land area, and ultimately what affects our coastal 
economy drives our Nation's economy. More than 75 percent of growth in 
this country from 1997 to 2007, whether measured in population, jobs, 
or gross domestic product, occurred in coastal States. Coastal 
counties, covering just 18 percent of our land area, contributed 42 
percent of U.S. economic output in 2007 according to a report published 
last year by the National Ocean Economics Program. Tourism, inherently 
reliant on pristine beaches, healthy habitat to foster fish, shellfish, 
and marine mammals, and fishable, swimmable waters, contributed over 
half a trillion dollars to our national GDP.
  This is why in the 2004 report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean 
Policy, one of that body's fundamental priorities was the creation of 
an ocean policy trust fund to supplement existing appropriations for 
ocean and coastal programs. The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, 
comprised of members of that body and the Pew Oceans Commission, has 
consistently listed establishment of an ocean trust fund among its 
highest priorities. The National Endowment for the Oceans will at long 
last meet this demand and provide a consistent stream of supplemental 
funding to enhance our commitment to protecting and sustaining these 
most fragile resources.
  The fact is, our oceans and coastal regions face more challenges 
today than at any time in our history. Global climate change is already 
being felt more pressingly off our shores than our scientists yet 
understand. In the past few years alone, ocean acidification, a threat 
so new it was not even mentioned in the Ocean Commission's report, has 
begun to change the fundamental makeup of the ocean food web and 
destroy coral reef structures that have for eons girded our shores and 
provided nursery grounds for countless species of fish. Scientists 
believe increasing ocean temperatures are to blame for a steep and 
sudden decline in the southern New England and Long Island Sound 
lobster populations. This problem is so grave that fishery managers are 
considering closing the entire fishery in this area that has been rich 
with lobster throughout the duration of recorded human history. Hypoxic 
areas known as ``dead zones'' are cropping up off our shores in areas 
where they never before existed, and the annual hypoxic zone in the 
Gulf of Mexico regularly encompasses an area the size of the state of 
New Jersey. I could go on and on, but my point is abundantly clear--our 
oceans need our help.
  This vital legislation would set aside a portion of revenues from 
offshore oil and gas and renewable energy development on the outer 
continental shelf and would apply interest generated by the oil spill 
liability trust fund to a dedicated National Endowment for the Oceans. 
This endowment would fund three targeted grant programs--one to coastal 
states, a second to support regional ocean partnerships, and a third to 
fund the activities of additional ocean research not covered by the 
other two programs. This money would be available at the discretion of 
State and Federal resource managers for activities proven to restore, 
protect, maintain, or understand living marine resources and their 
habitats and ecosystems.
  Funding will supplement, not replace, annual appropriations for the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations, NOAA, and other 
Federal agencies already carrying out critical work in our ocean, 
coastal, and Great Lakes regions. In the past I have pressed the 
Administration and others in this body to increase Federal support for 
these agencies. I will continue to call for increases in NOAA's base 
funding until our investment in the agency meets the requirements of 
its missions. In the meantime, this program would provide a significant 
boost to our efforts to protect, conserve, restore, and understand the 
oceans, coasts and Great Lakes so vital to our national heritage, 
culture, economy, and identity.
  I would like once again to thank Senator Whitehouse for his tireless 
ocean advocacy and his invaluable work to introduce the National 
Endowment for the Oceans Act, and Senator Rockefeller for his 
cosponsorship of this initiative, and I look forward to working with 
them on this and many more ocean issues in the future.
                                 ______