Coastal Habitat Conservation Act of 2023

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York and thank my colleagues for understanding the importance of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Coastal Program and for supporting this legislation to, for the first time, authorize it in statute.

Coastal conservation is not just about protecting our environment. It is about supporting a thriving economy. However, we do face serious threats--climate change, pollution, unsustainable development, and other threats--to our coastal habitats, causing rapid deterioration of these critical resources.

I want to be very clear: This is not a local issue. Over 53 percent of the United States population lives near coastal watersheds. These areas are home to 45 percent of federally listed threatened and endangered species. Over 60 million American jobs depend on the health of our coasts.

These coastal habitats are complex, dynamic, and they don't always fit neatly within the boundaries that often guide our conservation work. The Service's Coastal Program recognizes this, and it allows for management flexibility by providing technical and financial assistance for coastal land acquisitions. This helps the Service strategically conserve coastal habitat beyond the confines of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The Coastal Program has a great record of success. Since its inception in Chesapeake Bay in 1985, the program has expanded to 23 other priority coastal areas along the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in the Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, and the Caribbean, including wetlands, estuaries, beaches, and mangrove forests.

Within these areas, the Service facilitates a voluntary, partnership- based relationship with coastal communities to conserve and restore coastal ecosystems and benefit fish, wildlife, and people alike.

While the Coastal Program is designed to help conserve and recover priority habitat in coastal areas, it can only be effective with adequate resources. That is why the Coastal Habitat Conservation Act of 2023 provides statutory authority to the program by authorizing $16.9 million annually over the next 5 fiscal years.

I am pleased that we are here supporting efforts to bring together people and private partners to voluntarily protect and improve coastal habitats. This is an approach that helps strike a balance between working landscapes and habitat conservation in our coastal communities.

With this bipartisan bill, we can ensure that this great program will continue to drive locally led conservation projects across coastal States and territories, preserving the health and resilience of coastal habitats to benefit the wildlife communities and economies that depend on them for generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2950) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior, through the Coastal Program of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, to work with willing partners and provide support to efforts to assess, protect, restore, and enhance important coastal landscapes that provide fish and wildlife habitat on which certain Federal trust species depend, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2950, the bill now under consideration.

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

Representative Huffman's bill, the Coastal Habitat Conservation Act of 2023, congressionally authorizes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Coastal Program.

The Coastal Program was administratively created in 1984 and annually receives appropriations even though it has never been statutorily authorized. H.R. 2950 would address this currently unauthorized program and ensure that the Committee on Natural Resources has increased oversight.

Importantly, it would better enable the Committee on Natural Resources to make substantive changes to how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administers the program should those changes be necessary.

The Coastal Program is a voluntary, partnership-based program that allows the Service to provide technical and financial assistance for habitat conservation in coastal watersheds. The committee has heard testimony that outlined the successes of this program, which has conserved nearly 3 million acres of priority habitat nationwide.

The bill brings greater congressional oversight over an important program for coastal habitat conservation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Mrs. Gonzalez-Colon).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2950 authorizes the Coastal Program in a fiscally responsible manner and provides for increased congressional oversight and direction of the program.

By doing so, we, as Members of Congress, will be better able to fulfill our oversight responsibilities. At the same time, this program continues its work conserving coastal ecosystems for the benefit of species and our constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

I rise in support of H.R. 2950, the Coastal Habitat Conservation Act, introduced by the gentleman from California (Mr. Huffman), the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee ranking member.

This bill would provide statutory authority for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Coastal Program, including authorizing nearly $17 million each year from fiscal year 2024 through 2028.

The Coastal Program is one of the Fish and Wildlife Service's most effective voluntary programs for restoring and protecting the habitat. It has helped coastal communities and their partners conserve and restore coastal ecosystems since 1985. These partnerships have benefited people, habitats, and wildlife in 24 priority coastal areas, including the Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, Caribbean, Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean.

The program works to create resilient coastal ecosystems, support habitat connectivity, recover Federal trust in priority species, and promote community stewardship of fish and wildlife resources. It does so by providing both technical and financial assistance to States, Tribes, coastal communities, and conservation organizations for public and private lands.

This successful program has completed nearly 5,000 projects and collaborated with over 6,400 partners, with the outcome of protecting more than 2.3 million acres of habitat and improving land and water for the people and wildlife that live there.

Our country and our planet are facing a climate crisis and a biodiversity crisis, so efforts like these are essential.

Authorizing the Coastal Program through H.R. 2950 will enable the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to continue identifying threats to coastal landscapes, providing coastal habitat planning and assessments, ensuring restoration and protection for resilient coastlines, and developing capacity building between private and public partnerships.

I strongly support the Coastal Habitat Conservation Act and urge my colleagues to pass this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Huffman), the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2950, the Coastal Habitat Conservation Act. I was proud to join Congressman Huffman as the co-lead on this bipartisan bill, which would congressionally authorize the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program.

This program is one of the Service's most effective and proven initiatives, bringing together public and private partners on a voluntary basis to protect and improve coastal habitats and ecosystems across our Nation. These efforts are carried out throughout 24 priority coastal areas along the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, and of course, the Caribbean.

In 2023, the Coastal Program worked with partners and local communities to implement 153 conservation projects across 19 States and territories, restoring and protecting more than 87,000 acres. This was accomplished by leveraging $3 in partners' contributions for every Federal dollar invested in the program.

In the case of Puerto Rico, we have seen firsthand the success and the impact of this program. Between 2010 and 2021, the Coastal Program supported 218 voluntary-based projects on the island, which contributed to the restoration of almost 2,900 acres of habitat. These include projects to restore coastal dunes, wetlands, and mangrove forests. It also supported partnerships with local farmers to convert sun-grown coffee farms into shade-grown coffee farms which help protect streams and coral reefs by reducing sources of sediment and nutrient pollution.

I trust that formally authorizing the Coastal Program, as H.R. 2950 seeks to do, will ensure it has the necessary tools to continue supporting similar locally driven conservation projects across our Nation, coastal States, and of course territories.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2950.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 529, H.R. 2950.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

The bill was ordered to a third reading and was read the third time.

I know of no further debate on the bill.

I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.