[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 181 (Wednesday, November 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6541]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Tribute to Adena Leibman

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, today is my 258th ``Time to Wake Up'' 
speech, and I want to use this occasion to take us back to our oceans.
  Before I get into the substance of my remarks, I note that this will 
be the last ``Time to Wake Up'' speech during which Adena Leibman will 
be with me. She has been closely involved in all of my office's oceans 
work. She has, indeed, led it. She came to my office as a Knauss 
fellow.
  We loved Dean Knauss in Rhode Island. He was the dean of the Graduate 
School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. In working 
with Senator Pell, he helped to launch NOAA, helped to start the Sea 
Grant Program, and was extremely significant in the ocean work of our 
government. So one being a Knauss fellow--one of the Knauss legacies--
is a really big deal and is a particularly big deal in Rhode Island.
  Adena has been coordinating the oceans work now for 4 years and has 
also been coordinating our appropriations work. In the time that Adena 
has been working on this, the bipartisan Oceans Caucus, which Senator 
Murkowski and I established, has grown to 40 Members. It is very 
bipartisan. It is very effective. We set it up as a working caucus, and 
it is working.
  Adena helped us get the Coastal Resilience Fund passed into law. It 
is now producing tens of millions of dollars in grants for coastal 
communities that need the support as sea levels rise.
  She helped to get the Save Our Seas Act passed. That was a unanimous 
effort. Dan Sullivan, of Alaska, was a remarkable partner in all of 
that. The participants in that included leaders from landlocked States. 
Senator Inhofe was a real leader on that bill. We had such a good time 
with it that we are now working on Save Our Seas 2.0, which today came 
through the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee after 
having passed the Foreign Relations Committee unanimously and the 
Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously. We are hoping that 
soon we will be able to organize the floor consideration of it and, 
perhaps, pass it by unanimous consent in the way we did with the Save 
Our Seas Act. The work of all of that progress in those committees and 
the negotiating of Save Our Seas 2.0 was led by Adena.
  Lastly, this week, I started going around to collect cosponsors for 
Senator Murkowski's and my BLUE GLOBE Act, which is the ocean data 
monitoring bill that we have worked on and are now ready to launch. An 
enormous amount of preparatory work goes into getting that ready--
getting supporters lined up and doing all of the work of cross-
referencing the different points of view--and getting a bill that we 
also hope stands a good chance of passing this body by unanimous 
consent. So I give the speech with gratitude to Adena for her work.