NEAR Act of 2019

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and his kind words.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 988, the National Estuaries and Acidification Research Act.

First, I want to thank Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici and Congressman Brian Mast for working with me and our staff to advance this important bipartisan legislation. I also want to thank the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for their valuable input.

The NEAR Act is a national proposal with a very special connection. People in my district, the Eighth Congressional District of Florida, understand in a very deep way the economic and environmental importance of the ocean and our estuary.

My district is bounded on the east by the Indian River Lagoon, which is North America's most diverse estuary. As the name implies, our estuary is a lagoon. It is an estuary separated from the ocean by barrier islands. The exchange of waters between the lagoon and the sea makes it an estuary.

The lagoon is 156 miles long, but it is only a half mile to 5 miles wide and averages just 3 feet in depth. Our lagoon is a wondrous nursery for sea life, but its physical features make it especially vulnerable to environmental threats. Unfortunately, the Indian River Lagoon and other valuable estuaries throughout our country are being threatened by ocean acidification, along with other stressors.

EPA tells us that, when carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, about one-third of that carbon dioxide is absorbed by seawater, creating carbonic acid. We have seen this happen in the ocean, but this process is now seeming to occur in estuaries and coastal zones.

Ten years of Federal investments in ocean acidification research show that acidification hurts tourism, recreational fishing, and coastal communities that depend on healthy marine ecosystems. Shellfish are especially at peril.

The threats of coastal acidification to our environment and our economy

are significant. The story of my district and the Indian River Lagoon plays out along our entire national coastline. More than half of the U.S. population lives in coastal areas.

Coastal watershed counties provide an estimated 69 million U.S. jobs and contribute an estimated $7.9 trillion to the GDP, annually. That is why I joined with Congresswoman Bonamici to cofound the bipartisan Congressional Estuary Caucus to work for policies that preserve and restore our estuaries and to help support other efforts like research and development to contribute to healthy estuaries.

Regrettably, we don't know a lot about how increasing ocean acidification affects a nearshore water body like the Indian River Lagoon. That is because acidification often acts, alongside other coastal processes, like runoff, erosion, and upwelled water from the ocean.

These estuary conditions aren't present in the same way in the open ocean, and they make it difficult to measure acidification's impact from what we know about the open ocean. As a result, we don't yet have a great way to measure how acidification plays out in estuaries. We need more research to support efforts to prevent and mitigate coastal acidification.

The NEAR Act is a great step toward increasing our knowledge of how acidification affects our estuaries. The study proposed in this bill can give us invaluable information to bolster our efforts to preserve and restore healthy estuaries.

Mr. Speaker, when we take care of our environment, we take care of ourselves; and, therefore, I ask my colleagues to join me in taking this important step toward understanding how ocean acidification affects our precious estuaries and support this bill today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 988, the ``National Estuaries and Acidification Research Act of 2019.''

H.R. 988 provides a study by the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies of Science examining the impact of ocean acidification and other stressors in estuarine environments.

The bill would authorize the appropriation of $1 million for a report, to be completed in two years, that examines the challenges to studying ocean acidification, provides recommendations for improving future research, and identifies ways to apply science while mitigating and managing ocean acidification in estuarine environments.

Ocean acidification occurs when there are changes in ocean water chemistry from the absorption of excess carbon dioxide, but the current understanding of ocean acidification impacts on estuarine ecosystems is inadequate to fully prepare and manage for changing environmental conditions in nearshore locations.

It is critical that we better understand the interaction of multiple stressors, including salinity, pH, temperature, sea level rise, and nutrient input, within estuarine ecosystems so that the health, economic, recreational, and environmental impacts driven by these interactions can be effectively managed.

This bill will allow the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies to conduct a study that--examines the existing science of ocean acidification in estuarine environments; examines the challenges to studying ocean acidification and ocean acidification's interactions with other environment stressors in estuarine environments; provides recommendations for improving future research with respect to ocean acidification in estuarine environments; and identifies pathways for applying science in management and mitigation decisions relating to ocean acidification in estuarine environments.

Through transportation, recreation, tourism, and other port activities, healthy estuaries are critical to the economy of coastal communities and contribute $320 billion to our nation's GDP.

In addition, estuaries filter sediments and pollutants out before river water reaches the ocean and provide habitat for more than 75 percent of commercially caught fish in the United States.

When enacted, H.R. 988 will create a better understanding of coastal acidification, so we can better manage and mitigate its effects on our nation's estuaries and other natural treasures.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 988 to confront ocean acidification, which poses a strong threat to the estuaries that America's coastal residents depend on for nutrition, employment, and recreation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 988, the National Estuaries and Acidification Research Act of 2019, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Congressman Bill Posey.

This legislation directs the Secretary of Commerce to coordinate a study with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to examine the effects of ocean acidification on estuary environments, and to submit the report to Congress within 2 years. Specifically, this study would provide Congress a greater understanding of the biological and economic impacts of ocean acidification on inland marine environments beyond what is called for under current law.

Estuaries are ecologically unique and economically important brackish water ecosystems that occur when inland rivers meet oceans. These areas possess unique biological characteristics and have not been the subject of studying the effects of ocean acidification to date.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard about the need for additional study for ocean acidification during the debate on the previous bills. However, this legislation would further improve our knowledge of this topic by utilizing the expertise and resources of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Ocean Studies Board to gain a better understanding of the importance of this issue.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Posey), the author of this outstanding piece of legislation and someone who has a tremendous working knowledge of all of these issues.

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 988) to provide for a study by the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies of Science examining the impact of ocean acidification and other stressors in estuarine environments, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on H.R. 988, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 988, the National Estuaries and Acidification Research Act of 2019, or the NEAR Act.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to thank the sponsor of the legislation, Mr. Posey, for his work on this bill and his general support and understanding in addressing the serious problem of ocean acidification.

Mr. Posey's bill takes a focused look at a unique part of our coastal environment estuaries. Our estuaries are valuable and part of our marine community, both from an economic, as well as an ecological perspective. These environments are complex and the effects of ocean acidification on them is well understood.

H.R. 988 would address the gaps in our knowledge by commissioning a review by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the impacts of ocean acidification on estuaries.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this good, bipartisan bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici).

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairwoman for yielding me the time and for her support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Congressman Posey's bipartisan National Estuaries and Acidification Research Act. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill, which would direct the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Ocean Studies Board to conduct a study that examines the existing science of ocean acidification and estuaries and provide recommendations to improve future research and management to inform mitigation decisions.

As co-chair of the House Oceans Caucus and the Congressional Estuary Caucus, I know that acidification is not only affecting open oceans. Estuaries and nearshore waters are also faced with environmental stressors. Ocean and coastal acidification often present itself in the context of other coastal processes like runoff, erosion, and upwelled water from the oceans making it difficult to measure its individual effects on estuaries.

We know that estuaries and nearshore waters are also experiencing the consequences of our inaction to address ocean and coastal acidification, and research has not kept pace with the needs of coastal communities.

The NEAR Act would address the significant research gaps and urgent need to improve our understanding of the effects of ocean and coastal acidification.

I want to thank Congressman Posey for his leadership on this bill, and his efforts to preserve our Nation's estuaries. I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.