[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9393]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  THE SEQUESTER AND NATURAL DISASTERS

  (Mr. HUFFMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, because of climate change, we're facing 
stronger and more destructive storms and natural disasters than at any 
other time in American history. And at the same time, the sequester is 
slashing funding for the agencies that are critical to helping our 
communities protect, adapt, and rebuild.
  NOAA will lose $271 million in funding this year, and that includes 
$50 million for the geostationary weather satellite program. That's the 
program that provides continuous monitoring for severe weather.
  So less than a year after Hurricane Sandy, a month after the 
devastating tornadoes in Oklahoma, we're cutting the agency responsible 
for forecasting and monitoring severe weather.
  But it's not just severe weather disasters on our shores that 
threaten American communities. My congressional district has seen 
debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami wash up on our shores, and our 
regional economy is inextricably linked to the health of our oceans, 
which are jeopardized by climate change.
  Our planet is warming. We're beginning to feel major impacts, and it 
will only get worse unless we act to protect our climate.

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