Free Enterprise Act of 2009

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce The Standards to Provide Educational Achievement for Kids, SPEAK, Act, a bill designed to provide incentives to states to begin holding every child in America to the same high standards. At its core, SPEAK will adopt and implement voluntary core American education content standards in math and science while incentivizing states to adopt them.

America's leadership, economic, and national security rest on our commitment to educate and prepare our youth to succeed in a global economy. The key to succeeding in this endeavor is to have high expectations for all American students as they progress through our Nation's schools.

Currently there are 50 different sets of academic standards, 50 State assessments, and 50 definitions of proficiency under the No Child Left Behind Act. As a result of varied standards, exams and proficiency levels, America's highly mobile student-aged population moves through the Nation's schools gaining widely varying levels of knowledge, skills and preparedness. Yet, in order for the U.S. to compete in a global economy, we must strengthen our educational expectations for all American children--we must compete as one Nation.

Recent international comparisons show that American students have significant shortcomings in math and science. Many lack the basic skills required for college or the workplace. This affects our economic and national security; it holds us back in the global marketplace and risks ceding our competitive edge. This is unacceptable.

America was founded on the notion of ensuring equity and opportunity for all. And yet, we risk both when we allow different students in different states to graduate from high school with very different educations. We live in a nation with an unacceptably high high school dropout rate. We live in a nation where 8th graders in some states score more than 30 points higher on tests of basic science knowledge than students in other states. I ask my colleagues today what equality of opportunity we have under such circumstances.

This is where American standards come in. Voluntary, core American standards in math and science are an important step in ensuring that all American students are given the same opportunity to learn to a high standard no matter where they reside. They will allow for meaningful comparisons of student academic achievement across states, help ensure that American students are academically qualified to enter college or training for the civilian or military workforce, and help ensure that students are better prepared to compete in the global marketplace. Uniform standards are a first step in maintaining America's competitive and national security edge.

While I understand that education is, after all, a state endeavor, we cannot ignore that at the end of the day America competes as one country on the global marketplace. This does not mean that I am asking states to cede their authority in education. What the bill simply proposes is that we use the convening power of the Federal Government to incentivize efforts to create a core set of common standards.

I would like to take a moment to recognize the recent remarkable achievement of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in partnership with Achieve, Inc, ACT, and the College Board. Just last week they announced that 49 States and territories have joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative and have committed to a process to develop common standards in English language arts and mathematics. They have made a commitment to evidence- based and internationally benchmarked standards, which are scheduled to be developed later this year. This effort is outstanding. Just 2 years ago, when I introduced one of the first bills in the Senate on standards, this type of effort would have been unthinkable. Now, there is strong momentum behind providing all students across the country with competitive and consistent standards.

The SPEAK Act, provides flexibility in the creation or adoption of American standards, understanding that there are effective efforts underway that could be integrated into the program of Federal incentives that this bill would provide.

The SPEAK Act will task the National Assessment Governing Board with creating or adopting rigorous and voluntary core American education content standards in math and science for grades K-12. It will require that the standards be anchored in the National Assessment of Educational Progress' math and science frameworks. It will also ensure that such standards are internationally competitive and comparable to the best standards in the world, similar to the outline created for the standards being developed through the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

States that do participate, while required to adopt the American standards, will be given the flexibility to make them their own. They will have the option to add additional content requirements, they will have final say in how coursework is sequenced, and, ultimately, States, and districts will still be the ones developing the curriculum, choosing the textbooks and administering the tests. The standards provided for under this legislation will simply serve as a common core.

The SPEAK Act will develop rigorous achievement levels. It will ensure that varying developmental levels of students are taken into account in the development of such standards. It will provide for periodic review and update of such standards. It establishes an American Standards Incentive Fund to incentivize states to adopt the standards. Among the benefits of participating is a significant infusion of funds for states to bolster their K-12 data systems.

No one will deny that our Nation is facing difficult economic times. However, there remains a steadfast commitment to improving education for our students, a commitment that includes working to develop voluntary American standards. I applaud states that realize that despite facing difficult budget realities, holding all students to the same, high standards will be what is best for the future of our nation. These States need and deserve incentives and resources to complete this important work.

I should also note that the SPEAK Act has garnered endorsements from businesses, math/science organizations, foundations, and the education community. Through the leadership of Congressman Vernon Ehlers in the House of Representatives it shares not only bicameral, but bipartisan support. Together we have all come together to affect meaningful change in our public schools.

We live in an economy where you can no longer lift, dig or assemble your way to success. Today, you have got to think your way to success so that when public education doesn't work, when we fail to compete as one nation, our entire country gets left behind. Low expectations translate to an America that is less competitive on the world stage. If that happens, we are going to wonder why we didn't do anything about it while we still had time.

Core American standards will set high goals for all students, allow for meaningful comparisons of achievement across states, and help ensure that all of our students are qualified to enter college. At the end of the day, we all want what is best for our country and parents want what is best for their kids. With core standards, America will begin the work of regaining its competitive edge in the global economy. In the life of every student, equality will be made a little more real with reintroduction of this bill, as the skills and knowledge we expect of them are no longer made contingent on where they reside.

I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting the SPEAK Act. As we start holding our students to the same high standards, I expect that we will be amazed at the excellence that follows.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I rise today to introduce the Energy Market Manipulation Prevention Act.

Did you know we are in the midst of the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression? Millions of our fellow Americans are losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing their life savings, losing the ability to send their kids to college and, in many ways, they are losing the hope that their own children will have a brighter future and a better life than they have had. It is a very unusual moment in the history of our country.

In the midst of all of this concern and decline in the standards of living of millions of Americans, the last thing that our country needs right now is to see our people be ripped off at the gas pump this summer because of the speculators on Wall Street. Some of the very same people who caused this recession and have received the largest taxpayer bailout in American history are allowed to jack up oil prices through price manipulation and outright fraud.

This is obviously not only an issue for the moment for millions and millions of people who drive to work every day, but for truckers and farmers and all people who are dependent upon gas; and it is also an issue for many parts of our country, such as Vermont, where a lot of our people heat with oil. We are not going to sit around idly and watch the price of oil artificially rise so that elderly people who heat with oil are unable to adequately heat their homes in the wintertime.

Unfortunately, this artificial increase in oil and gas prices is exactly what is happening now, as it occurred similarly last summer, when the price of oil hit $147 a barrel. The price of gas at the pump was over $4 a gallon, and truckers paid more than $5 a gallon for diesel fuel. That is where we were last summer, and we are heading back there right now, unless Congress moves in an aggressive way to say no to speculation on oil futures.

As you know, the price of oil is supposed to be based on the fundamentals of supply and demand, not by excessive speculation. What all of us learned in economics 101 is that if there is limited supply and a lot of demand, the price of the product goes up. If there is a lot of supply and limited demand, the price goes down. That is one of the basic tenets of free market capitalism.

But interestingly, last month, crude oil inventories in the United States were at their highest level on record, while demand for oil in the United States dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade. In other words, there was a record amount of supply and less demand than we have seen over the last 10 years. Further, the International Energy Agency recently predicted that global demand for oil will drop this year to its lowest level since 1981.

What is going on? Demand is going down, supply is high, and what the fundamentals of economic theory tell us is that gas and oil prices will go down. But as everybody who fills up their gas tank today understands, that is certainly not the case, because gas and oil prices are going up.

Despite the record supply of oil and reduced demand, prices are going up, not down. In fact, the national average price of gasoline has jumped from $1.64 a gallon late last year to over $2.60 today. Crude oil prices recently reached a 7-month high.

The American people have a right to ask why is this happening, in contradiction to the basic economic process of supply and demand, and we have a right and the obligation to act to protect those consumers. The increased prices that millions of motorists are currently seeing have caused severe financial hardship for American families, truckers, small businesses, airlines, and farmers. It is putting enormous strain on an economy already in the throes of a deep recession.

We passed the stimulus package in order to create millions of jobs, in order to put money into the hands of working people, many of whom had lost their jobs. And now what we are seeing, as a result of this artificial increase in the price of gas and oil, is that those tax breaks we gave to working families are going not into the local economy, they are going right back to Wall Street and speculation, and they are going to the oil companies.

All of us have a responsibility to do everything we can to lower oil and gas prices immediately, so that they reflect supply and demand fundamentals, not excessive speculation. Therefore, the legislation I am introducing today will require the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to use its emergency powers to prevent the manipulation of oil prices and empower the CFTC with new authority to prohibit excessive speculation in the oil market.

Last July, the House of Representatives passed similar legislation by a vote of 402 to 19--widely bipartisan.

But that legislation, unfortunately, did not become law. In addition, this legislation would also require the CFTC to, No. 1, immediately classify all bank holding companies and hedge funds engaged in energy futures trading as noncommercial participants and subject them to strict position limits.

No. 2, this legislation would eliminate the conflict of interest that arises when a firm, a large Wall Street financial institution, has employees under one umbrella responsible for predicting the future price of oil--the so-called analysts--while the same company controls physical oil assets and trading energy derivatives.

No. 3, this legislation would immediately revoke all staff no-action letters for foreign boards of trade that have established trading terminals in the United States for the purpose of trading U.S. commodities to U.S. investors.

I am delighted that Bart Chilton, one of the commissioners at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has supported this legislation.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that his letter to me be printed in the Record.

Let me briefly quote from the letter.

He says:

As you know, the Commodity Exchange Act provides the CFTC

with broad emergency authority to take action, in its

discretion, in order to maintain or restore orderly trading.

In your proposed legislation, you have identified critically

important areas of concern--excessive speculation in energy

commodities, classification of bank holding companies and

limits on their energy trading, hedge fund registration,

classification and trading limits, conflicts of interest by

entities that both trade and advise in the energy arena, and

foreign market access. I wholeheartedly agree with you that

the time to act on these issues is now, and the CFTC should

aggressively utilize all available authorities as

appropriate, including but not limited to emergency authority

as currently defined in the CEA, to address these pressing

issues.

Madam President, I thank the Commissioner for his support of this legislation.

On May 28, I wrote to Gary Gensler, the new Chairman of the CFTC, urging him to undertake many of these initiatives. Last week, in my office, I discussed this issue with Mr. Gensler. He indicated that he has instructed his staff to give him a list of all of the options available to the CFTC to respond to these concerns. While I appreciate Mr. Gensler's efforts on this issue, I hope this legislation will spur the CFTC to take immediate action to lower oil prices.

The bottom line is, right now, at a time when unemployment is soaring, when the middle class is struggling to keep its head above water, the prices at the gas pump are soaring, and we worry about what oil prices in the northern parts of our country will be in the wintertime, there is very strong evidence to suggest that what we are talking about is not supply and demand but excessive speculation on the part of Wall Street in terms of pushing up oil futures.

This Congress must act to protect the middle class and working people of this country, the consumers of this country. It is time for us to demand that the CFTC take the action that is necessary.

Mr. President, the Small Business Administration has provided critical financial assistance and counseling to America's small businesses since 1953. The services and assistance provided through SBAs programs have been pivotal to this country's economic growth and have helped thousands of American entrepreneurs realize their dream of starting and growing a successful business. In this time of economic uncertainty, reauthorization of these entrepreneurial development programs is essential to moving our Nation forward.

What helps our entrepreneurs helps our entire economy. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all firms, employ more than half of the workforce and account for half of the Nation's Gross Domestic Product. Small business management and technical assistance can potentially help millions of small businesses by teaching entrepreneurs and small business owners fundamental principles and practices regarding cash flow, cost management, how to access to capital and effective business planning. The SBA, through its resource partners such as Small Business Development Centers, SBDCs, Women's Business Centers, WBCs, Service Corps of Retired Executives, SCORE, and others, not only provides technical assistance and information to potential and current small business owners, but helps focus this Nation's entrepreneurial spirit into concrete economic growth.

As Chair of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I have heard from small business owners across the country. They have told me that the programs and services currently offered by the Small Business Administration provide access to important resources that enable them to start, grow and expand their businesses. But more can and must be done to help these entrepreneurs. Through an extensive reauthorization of the entrepreneurial development programs within the Small Business Act, I believe that we can dramatically improve the tools available to small business concerns while simultaneously growing and strengthening our economy.

That is why today I am introducing the Entrepreneurial Development Act of 2009. This legislation will provide SBA resource partners with the tools they need to effectively serve small businesses, giving them more opportunities to help lead the nation back toward economic prosperity.

Before I discuss details of this bill, I first wish to thank Senator Snowe for her continued leadership on small business issues and working with me on this bipartisan effort. Over the past three congresses, the reauthorization of these programs has continued to receive support on both sides of the aisle, demonstrating the importance of reauthorizing essential entrepreneurial development programs.

SBA is utilizing resource partners such as SBDCs, SCORE, WBCs and others to ensure that we are growing the Nation's economy through entrepreneurial development. In 2007, with a modest Federal investment of approximately $97 million in assistance, SBDC clients generated nearly $220 million in additional Federal revenues. Many of the small businesses that received assistance from SBDC's attributed their success to assistance offered by the SBDC. Nationally, this economic activity resulted in approximately $2.26 in revenue for every Federal dollar expended.

This level of return on investment is not unique to SBDCs. According to an SBA report to Congress, SCORE helped create more than 19,000 new small businesses in 2007 at a cost of $29 per business and helped create more than 25,000 new jobs each year.

These programs also provide essential information, training and assistance to a broad and diverse cross-section of communities throughout the country, and serve to further grow a variety of industries. Resource partners such as WBCs and initiatives such as the Program for Investment in Microentrepreneurs, PRIME, are dedicated to serving clients who are economically and socially disadvantaged, providing tools and resources to small businesses in those communities that are most in need. According to a study sponsored by the Association of Women's Business Centers, AWBC, 2/3 of WBC clients have household incomes of less than $50,000 and 42 percent are women of color. These programs serve communities with limited access to capital and educational opportunities and provide them with the tools and information they need to start and manage a successful business.

The reauthorization of these programs is critical to effectively provide entrepreneurs with essential assistance and resources to start a successful business. The legislation will also create opportunities for veterans and service disabled small business owners. According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, there are more than 23.8 million veterans in the country, with hundreds of new veterans returning home from service in Iraq and Afghanistan each day. Many of these returning soldiers become entrepreneurs to support

themselves and rebuild their lives after long deployments, which also serves to create new jobs in their communities.

Since the passage of The Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999, the SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development has been working to provide technical assistance and support to those veterans who have served our country and returned to start or grow a small business. This legislation seeks to ease their transition by providing business counseling and technical assistance through a new network of Veterans Business Centers, modeled after Women's Business Centers and Small Business Development Centers. The Veterans Business Center Program will provide services not only to returning veterans and service disabled veterans, but also to the families, spouses and surviving spouses of these heroic men and women.

The 111th Congress will be the third consecutive Congress during which comprehensive legislation reauthorizing and improving the SBA's Entrepreneurial Programs has been introduced. Ranking Member Snowe introduced S. 3778 in the 109th Congress and former Chairman John Kerry introduced S. 1671 and S. 2920, a bill to which I was a cosponsor, during the 110th Congress. In each previous Congress, this legislation was well received and passed unanimously out of Committee; however, these bills stalled before the full Senate. As Chair of the Small Business Committee this Congress, it is a top priority of mine to finally get this legislation passed and ensure that during this time of economic uncertainty, we are able to provide small businesses with the tools they need to grow and expand their businesses. With this in mind, I will work closely with Ranking Member Snowe and the other members of the Committee in the coming months to get this legislation to the President's desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, as Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I rise today to join with Senator Landrieu to introduce the Entrepreneurial Development Act of 2009, a bill that would reauthorize and improve the U.S. Small Business Administration's, SBA, Entrepreneurial Development programs. I have long fought to expand the power and reach of the SBA's entrepreneurial development tools, which are used by millions of current and aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses across the U.S. These programs demonstrate how Congress can play a positive role in enhancing private- sector financing for start-up companies. We must continue to strengthen these core SBA programs because they have proven invaluable in aiding the efforts and dreams of America's entrepreneurs, and in bolstering small business job creation.

The bill that I am cosponsoring today is the product of the type of bipartisan, consensus work product for which the Senate Small Business Committee has come to be known. The provisions contained in this legislation are a compilation of ideas and initiatives put forward by myself, Senator Landrieu, and other Committee members. Much of the language in the Entrepreneurial Development Act of 2009 was contained in S. 2920, the SBA Reauthorization and Improvements Act in the 110th Congress, the individual provisions of which were each passed unanimously by the Senate Small Business Committee during the 110th Congress. Unfortunately, that bipartisan bill never passed the Senate.

This act, among other things, builds upon the aforementioned successes of SBA's Entrepreneurial Development programs, which collectively created or retained 200,000 jobs in 2008 alone.

Since their inception, Small Business Development Centers, SBDCs, have been essential in the delivery of management and technical counseling assistance and educational programs to prospective and existing small business owners. The SBDC program has served over 11 million clients with new business starts, sustainability programs for struggling firms, and expansion plans for growth firms. For every dollar spent on the SBDC program, approximately $2.87 in tax revenue is generated.

According to a recent report conducted at Mississippi State University, as a direct result of its counseling programs, SBDC clients generated approximately $7 billion in sales and created over 73,000 new jobs in 2006. Therefore, it is imperative that in such troubling economic times we ensure that this program has the resources necessary to successfully aid small businesses. Through this legislation, which increases the SBDC program's authorization to $160 million by fiscal year 2012, this program will be in a better position to continue helping entrepreneurs succeed.

The Women's Business Center, WBC, program, established by Congress in 1988, promotes the growth of women-owned businesses through business training and technical assistance, and provides access to credit and capital, federal contracts, and international trade opportunities. The WBC program served more than 159,000 clients across the country last year, providing help with financial management, procurement training, marketing and technical assistance. WBCs also provide specialized programs that include mentoring in various languages, Internet training, issues facing displaced workers and rural home-based entrepreneurs.

Our legislation builds on our commitment to providing assistance to women entrepreneurs. It directs the SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership to develop programs to bolster the growth of women-owned small businesses by providing support for business operations, manufacturing, technology, finance, Federal Government contracting, and international trade.

The bill also makes substantial improvements to the Women's Business Center program, which created nearly 9,000 jobs in the last fiscal year, including an expansion of the types of entities that are eligible to host WBCs to economic development organizations, state-chartered development organizations, and public or private colleges and universities. Finally, the bill directs the SBA to provide a minimum of $150,000 in funding annually to all new WBCs that are in their first 5 years of operation, allowing new centers to become fully established before they have to compete for federal funding.

The bill also reauthorizes SCORE, a non-profit association that matches business-management counselors with small business clients. SCORE volunteer counselors share their management and technical expertise with both existing and prospective small business owners. With its 10,500 member volunteer association, sponsored by the SBA, and more than 389 service delivery points and a website, SCORE provides counseling to small businesses nationwide. The national SCORE organization delivers its services of business and technical assistance through a national network of chapters, an Internet counseling site, partnerships with SBA, the SBDCs and WBCs, and with the public and private sectors. In 2008, SCORE created or retained 25,000 jobs, and this act will help improve this program by raising the authorization level to $13 million in fiscal year 2012.

In addition to reauthorizing SBA's ED programs and increasing their funding levels, this bill also addresses the crisis small businesses face when it comes to securing quality, affordable health insurance. Health insurance costs have increased by 89 percent since 2000. This has led to a disturbing trend of fewer and fewer small businesses being able to offer health insurance to their employees.

A key provision in this bill would establish a grant program to provide information, counseling, and educational materials to small businesses, through the well-established national framework of the SBA's technical assistance partners including SBDCs, WBC, Veteran's Business Centers, and SCORE.

Research conducted by the non-partisan Healthcare Leadership Council found that with a short educational and counseling session, small businesses were up to 33 percent more likely to offer health insurance to their employees. It is therefore vital that we provide the SBA's resource partners with the resources necessary to give small businesses the critical health care education they need to navigate the complex insurance market.

The SBA's entrepreneurial development programs provide tremendous value for a relatively small investment. I am committed to ensuring that Americans have the necessary resources to start, grow and develop a business. I believe that it is our duty to do everything possible to sustain prosperity and job creation throughout the U.S. I urge my colleagues to support this vital piece of legislation.

Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to reauthorize the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's important programs to restore the Chesapeake Bay and its aquatic resources. This measure is a companion to H.R. 1771, a bill recently introduced in the House by Representatives Sarbanes, Wittman and Kratovil. Joining me in sponsoring this legislation are my colleagues Senator Webb from Virginia and Senators Mikulski and Cardin from neighboring Maryland.

Throughout my public career, I have been a strong advocate for protecting our natural resources. One of the most important efforts in Virginia's environmental history has been preservation of the Chesapeake Bay, the nation's most important estuary. I am proud that we brought record funding to efforts related to cleaning the Chesapeake Bay and the toughest regulations for water quality yet. The Commonwealth's 3,300 miles of coastal resources provide significant economic

contributions to tourism, recreation, commercial and sport fisheries, and wildlife enjoyment within our State. Yet the safety of the Bay is still in great jeopardy; pollution, habitat loss and other factors have taken their toll.

NOAA has been a principal partner with the Bay region states and other Federal agencies in efforts to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem since 1984. Its mission is focusing NOAA capabilities in science, service, and stewardship to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. Congress formally authorized NOAA's participation in the Bay in Public Law 98-210 enacted in 1992 and reauthorized the program in 2002, Public Law 107-372. That authority expired 3 years ago, in 2006, and must be reauthorized.

Over the years, NOAA's work in the Chesapeake Bay has focused on three critical and interrelated areas--ecosystem science, coastal and living resources management, and environmental education--all part of an ecosystem approach for Bay restoration and management. The agency's science and research programs, conducted in collaboration with major academic institutions, are helping decision-makers survey and assess trends in living resources, understand and evaluate the responses of these resources to changes in their environment, and establish management goals and progress indicators. Through the Chesapeake Bay Observing System and the next-generation Chesapeake Bay Integrated Buoy System, NOAA is providing monitoring data on environmental conditions and water quality in the Bay necessary to track Bay restoration progress. The NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office's fish, shellfish and habitat restoration programs are helping to restore native oysters, blue crabs, and bay grasses throughout the watershed. And NOAA's pioneering Bay Watershed Education and Training program, B-WET, is making hands-on watershed education and training available to students and teachers throughout the watershed, bringing marine and weather sciences into the classroom and helping to foster stewardship of the Bay.

NOAA administers its work throughout the 64,000 square mile, 6 State watershed from offices in Maryland and Virginia, which collaborate with State and other Federal agencies, academic institutions, and nongovernmental organizations to support Bay protection and restoration goals. In Norfolk, Virginia, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office's science and education programs are incorporated into exhibits at Nauticus, our State's premier maritime center, which receives more than 350,000 visitors annually, and helps inform the public about NOAA's programs and activities. At the College of William and Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science, VIMS, NOAA is collaborating with a major academic partner to improve understanding of Bay fisheries and support improved oyster restoration. At Stingray Point, Norfolk and Jamestown, NOAA has deployed first-of-its-kind CBIBS interpretive buoys that are not only providing critical real-time data streams for scientists, but multidisciplinary education tools to users of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Water Trail. Throughout the Virginia and Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay, NOAA is assisting watermen impacted by reductions in blue-crab harvests.

But NOAA's work and responsibilities to the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort are far from complete. The partners in the Bay restoration need the agency's continued help and support. Throughout the Bay, ecologically important fish species are in decline or at risk due to disease, habitat loss, and other factors. Underwater grasses that once provided habitat to sustain these fisheries are at a fraction of their historic levels. As advanced as our science is, Chesapeake Bay managers still do not have adequate information about the estuary and its habitats to manage its living resources or mitigate diseases in fish and shellfish.

The legislation I am introducing today builds upon previous authorizations of the NOAA Bay Program and addresses several urgent, continuing or unmet needs in the watershed. The bill seeks to achieve five main objectives.

Increasing collaboration between the various programs and activities at NOAA to further NOAA's coastal resource stewardship mission.

Improving Bay monitoring capabilities and the coordination and organization of the substantial amounts of data collected and compiled by Federal, State, and local government agencies and academic institutions through further development of an integrated observations system and the Chesapeake Bay Interpretative Buoy System.

Strengthening the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Education and Training Program, B-WET, the competitively based program which provides students with meaningful Chesapeake Bay or stream outdoor experiences and teachers with professional development opportunities for Bay-related environmental education.

Supporting and encouraging public-private partnerships to restore finfish and shellfish populations, submerged aquatic vegetation and other critical coastal habitat through aquaculture, stock enhancements, propagation and other programs.

Ensuring that Federal funds are spent wisely and effectively on projects that have scientific and technical merit and are peer reviewed.

This legislation enhances NOAA's commitment to further scientific data collection, develops fishery management practices and habitat restoration, and strengthens Chesapeake Bay environmental education programs. Mr. President, the Bay is a national treasure and its restoration should be a national priority.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that letters of support be printed in the Record.