Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act of 2018

Mr. President, today along with Senator Carper, I am introducing the Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act. This bill would ensure that we have accurate information about the extent of mercury pollution in the United States.

A comprehensive national mercury monitoring network is needed to protect human health, safeguard fisheries, and track the effect of emissions reductions. This tracking is particularly important in light of increasing mercury emissions from other countries, including a substantial amount of mercury emissions from China. Mercury can be transported around the globe, meaning emissions and releases can affect human health and environment even in remote locations.

The issue of mercury emissions is growing in importance around the world. In 2013, the United States was the first Nation to join and sign the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global agreement to reduce mercury pollution. The Minamata Convention has been signed by more than 125 countries and raises the issue that mercury poses a global threat to human health. At present, scientists must rely on limited information to understand the critical linkages between mercury emissions and environmental response and human health. Successful design, implementation, and assessment of solutions to the mercury pollution problem require comprehensive long-term information. A system for collecting such information, such as we have for acid rain and other pollution, does not currently exist for mercury--a much more toxic pollutant.

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin of significant ecological and public health concern, especially for children and pregnant women. It is estimated that approximately 200,000 children born in the U.S. per year are exposed to levels of mercury in the womb that are high enough to impair neurological development. Mercury exposure has gone down as U.S. mercury emissions have declined; however, levels remain far too high.

By accurately quantifying regional and national changes in atmospheric deposition, ecosystem contamination, and bioaccumulation of mercury in fish and wildlife in response to changes in mercury emissions, a monitoring network would help policy makers, scientists, and the public to better understand the sources, consequences, and trends in mercury pollution in the United States. We must have more comprehensive information and we must have it soon; otherwise, we risk making misguided policy decisions.

Specifically, the Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act would:

Direct EPA, in conjunction with the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, and other appropriate Federal agencies, to establish a national mercury monitoring program to measure and monitor mercury levels in the air and watersheds, water and soil chemistry, and in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial organisms across the nation;

Establish a scientific advisory committee to advise on the establishment, site selection, measurement, recording protocols, and operations of the monitoring program;

Establish a centralized database for existing and newly collected environmental mercury data that can be freely accessed on the Internet and is comprised of data that is compatible with similar international efforts;

Require a report to Congress every two years on the program, including trends, and an assessment of the reduction in mercury deposition rates that need to be achieved in order to prevent adverse human and ecological effects every four-years; and

Authorize $95 million over three years to carry out the Act.

We must establish a comprehensive, robust national monitoring network

for mercury to provide the data needed to help make decisions to protect the people and environment of Maine and the United States.

Mr. President, today I am introducing the Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act of 2018 to help Americans who have been driven away from their homes by choking, hazardous wildfire smoke. Western wildfires are getting bigger, hotter, and more difficult to fight and scientists says it's only likely to get worse.

Folks back home in Oregon and across the Pacific Northwest already know what I'm talking about because they're on the front lines of these disasters. With dryer summers and lower snow packs, wildfires rage across the West. They're threatening lives, homes, and businesses and generating so much smoke that they're creating what I call clean air refugees.

These are people who can't go outside and, in some cases, who must flee their homes and communities to find pockets of fresh air.

I'm talking about children suffering from asthma and other conditions and seniors who need a respirator to breathe.

In some cases, Oregonians lacking access to safe, clean air are being told to seek shelter in public places like libraries and government buildings.

My legislation would help provide some relief by opening the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Transitional Sheltering Assistance program to people seeking temporary shelter from wildfire smoke.

This program already permits FEMA to pay for temporary lodging for people who can't immediately return home following a disaster.

My bill would permit clean air refugees to apply if they live in an area where the air quality index is determined to be unhealthy for at least three consecutive days as the result of a wildfire declared to be a major disaster by the President or Governor of the affected state.

FEMA-approved applicants would pick from a list of participating hotels and motels and FEMA would pay the lodging costs.

Mr. President, the Federal government needs to step up and be a better partner on these wildfires and it can start by helping Americans who have been driven from their homes find some refuge.

Passing the Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act would be a breath of fresh air for folks struggling to escape the choking smoke, and I urge my colleagues to support this important bill.

Mr. President, today I am introducing the Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act of 2018 to help Americans who have been driven away from their homes by choking, hazardous wildfire smoke. Western wildfires are getting bigger, hotter, and more difficult to fight and scientists says it's only likely to get worse.

Folks back home in Oregon and across the Pacific Northwest already know what I'm talking about because they're on the front lines of these disasters. With dryer summers and lower snow packs, wildfires rage across the West. They're threatening lives, homes, and businesses and generating so much smoke that they're creating what I call clean air refugees.

These are people who can't go outside and, in some cases, who must flee their homes and communities to find pockets of fresh air.

I'm talking about children suffering from asthma and other conditions and seniors who need a respirator to breathe.

In some cases, Oregonians lacking access to safe, clean air are being told to seek shelter in public places like libraries and government buildings.

My legislation would help provide some relief by opening the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Transitional Sheltering Assistance program to people seeking temporary shelter from wildfire smoke.

This program already permits FEMA to pay for temporary lodging for people who can't immediately return home following a disaster.

My bill would permit clean air refugees to apply if they live in an area where the air quality index is determined to be unhealthy for at least three consecutive days as the result of a wildfire declared to be a major disaster by the President or Governor of the affected state.

FEMA-approved applicants would pick from a list of participating hotels and motels and FEMA would pay the lodging costs.

Mr. President, the Federal government needs to step up and be a better partner on these wildfires and it can start by helping Americans who have been driven from their homes find some refuge.

Passing the Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act would be a breath of fresh air for folks struggling to escape the choking smoke, and I urge my colleagues to support this important bill.