[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 9, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S613-S614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. HIRONO (for herself, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Heinrich, Mrs. 
        Murray, Ms. Smith, and Ms. Warren):
  S. 3621. A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to establish

[[Page S614]]

a National Climate Adaptation Science Center and Regional Climate 
Adaptation Science Centers to respond to the effects of extreme weather 
events and climate trends, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Environment and Public Works.
  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Climate 
Adaptation Science Center Act, or CASC Act. This bill authorizes the 
national and nine regional CASCs that came about after Congress 
appropriated funding for a National Climate Science Center in 2008 and 
subsequently, in 2009, Department of the Interior Secretary Salazar 
recognized the Department as the lead Agency for protecting the 
country's cultural and natural resources via secretarial order.
  The national and regional CASCs are housed within the U.S. Geological 
Survey, USGS. The national CASC is located in Reston, VA, and the nine 
regional CASCs are dispersed throughout the country from Hawaii, to 
Alaska to Massachusetts. These regional CASCs service stakeholders in 
the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, U.S.-affiliated Pacific 
Islands, USAPI, and the U.S. Caribbean. The purpose of these CASCs is 
to help protect cultural and natural resources by developing the 
science and tools that on-the-ground managers need to respond to the 
effects of climate change.
  One regional CASC, the Pacific Island CASC, or PI-CASC, is a 
partnership between the USGS and a university consortium hosted by the 
University of Hawaii at Manoa, with the University of Hawaii at Hilo 
and the University of Guam. PI-CASC was established in October 2011 and 
over the course of more than a decade has conducted important climate 
research informed by impacted stakeholders, developed products and 
tools for resource managers to address climate change, and provided 
programs to increase capacity and stakeholder networking.
  Over 100 research projects have been completed to address stakeholder 
needs across the Hawaiian Islands and USAPI, such as prioritization 
planning for coastal wetland restoration on Molokai, developing a 
climate and GIS data portal for American Samoa, and predicting and 
mitigating avian disease at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on 
Hawaii Island. Over a dozen different products and tools have been 
developed by PI-CASC, including sea level forecasting tools for 
communities throughout the Pacific, a database on weed fire risk 
throughout Hawaii, and an agroforestry tool for Marshallese 
agricultural producers. Programs that have been made possible by the 
PI-CASC include a Manager Climate Corps on Hawaii Island, a Summer 
Undergraduate Research Fellowship, and a Pacific Regional Invasive 
Species & Climate Change Management Program.
  These are just examples of research, products, and programs made 
possible by one regional CASC. The nine regional CASCs are providing 
similar services all across the country. Currently, stakeholder demand 
for CASC system services outpaces available resources. Additionally, in 
the coming years and decades, the challenges that on-the-ground 
resource managers face with climate change are only going to become 
more numerous and complex. As such, this bill is necessary to formally 
establish the CASCs in law so that the important work that the national 
and nine regional CASCs conduct can continue assisting stakeholders all 
across the country for decades to come.
                                 ______