[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13433]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO AMEND THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC 
                ADMINISTRATION AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 1992

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 29, 2000

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, the legislation which I am introducing, 
which is a companion bill to the one introduced by Senator Sarbanes, 
would provide NOAA with additional resources and authority necessary to 
ensure its continued full participation in the Bay's restoration and in 
meeting with goals and objectives of the recently signed Chesapeake 
2000. First, this measure would move administration and oversight of 
the NOAA Bay Office from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) 
to the Office of the Undersecretary to help facilitate the pooling of 
all of NOAA's talents and take better advantage of NOAA's multiple 
capabilities. In addition to NMFS there are four other line offices 
within NOAA with programs and responsibilities critical to the Bay 
restoration effort--the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, 
National Ocean Service, National Weather Service, and National 
Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service. Getting these 
different line offices to pool their resources and coordinate their 
activities is a serious challenge when they do not have a direct stake 
or clear line of responsibility to the Chesapeake Bay Program. Placing 
the NOAA Bay office within the Under Secretary's Office will help 
assure the coordination of activities across all line organizations of 
NOAA.
  Second, the legislation authorizes and directs NOAA to undertake a 
special five-year study, in cooperation with the scientific community 
of the Chesapeake Bay and appropriate other federal agencies, to 
develop the knowledge base required for understanding multi-species 
interactions and developing multi-species management plans. To date, 
fisheries management in Chesapeake Bay and other waters, has been 
largely based upon single-species plans that often ignore the critical 
relationships between water and habitat quality, ecosystem health and 
the food webs that support the Bay's living resources. There is a 
growing consensus between scientific leaders and managers alike that we 
must move beyond the single species approach toward a wider, multi-
species and ecosystem perspective. Chesapeake 2000 calls for developing 
multi-species management plans for targeted species by the year 2005 
and implementing the plans by 2007. In order to achieve these goals, 
NOAA must take a leadership role and support a sustained research and 
monitoring program. The Chesapeake Bay NOAA multi-species plans can, in 
fact, provide important information to other fisheries programs 
throughout the United States.
  Third, the legislation authorizes NOAA to carry out a small-scale 
fishery and habitat restoration grant and technical assistance program 
to help citizens organizations and local governments in the Chesapeake 
Bay watershed undertake habitat, fish and shellfish restoration 
projects. Experience has shown that, with the proper tools and 
training, citizens' groups and local communities can play a tremendous 
role in fisheries and habitat protection and restoration efforts. The 
new Bay Agreement has identified a critical need to not only expand and 
promote community-based programs but to restore historic levels of 
oyster production, restore living resource habitat and submerged 
aquatic vegetation. The NOAA small-grants program, which this bill 
would authorize, would complement EPA's Chesapeake Bay small watershed 
program, and make ``seed'' grants available on a competitive, cost-
sharing basis to local governments and nonprofit organizations to 
implement hands-on projects such as improvement of fish passageways, 
creating artificial or natural reefs, restoring wetlands and sea-grass 
beds, and producing oysters for restoration projects.
  Fourth, the legislation would establish an internet-based Coastal 
Predictions Center for the Chesapeake Bay. Resource managers and 
scientists alike agree that we must make better use of the various 
modeling and monitoring systems and new technologies to improve 
prediction capabilities and response to physical and chemical events 
within the Bay and tributary rivers. There are substantial amounts of 
data collected and compiled by Federal, state and local government 
agencies and academic institutions including information on weather, 
tides, currents, circulation, climate, land use, coastal environmental 
quality, aquatic living resources and habitat conditions. 
Unfortunately, little of this data is coordinated and organized in a 
manner that is useful to the wide range of potential users. The Coastal 
Predictions Center would serve as a knowledge bank for assembling 
monitoring and modeling data from relevant government agencies and 
academic institutions, interpreting that data, and organizing it into 
products that are useful to resource managers, scientists and the 
public.
  Finally, the legislation would increase the authorization for the 
NOAA Bay Program from the current level of $2.5 million to $6 million 
per year to enhance current activities and to carry out these new 
initiatives. For more than a decade, funding for NOAA's Bay Program has 
remained static at an annual average of $1.9 million. If we are to 
achieve the ultimate, long-term goal of the Bay Program--protecting, 
restoring and maintaining the health of the living resources of the 
Bay--additional financial resources must be provided.
  The Chesapeake Bay Program, with the important participation of the 
NOAA Bay Office, has exhibited leadership utilizing the marine sciences 
to provide guidance for decision makers in the restoration and 
protection of this unique natural resource. This bill will not only 
continue that leadership but will significantly advance the knowledge 
generated from the additional functions called for in the 
reauthorization. This bill is supported by a number of Bay 
organizations and members of the scientific community.

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