Save Our Seas 2.0 Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I want to talk today with my colleagues Senator Menendez and Senator Whitehouse on a really important piece of legislation that is heading to the President's desk, and this is Save Our Seas 2.0.
It is the follow-on to the Save Our Seas Act that we passed in the Congress last Congress, and that was an important one mostly about ocean cleanup, but we thought we could do more. We thought, working with different groups--so many groups--and the executive branch, the Trump administration, that we could do a lot more. So we got to work.
I want to thank my colleagues on the floor today--Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Senator Menendez of New Jersey--for their work, their leadership, their cooperation.
Senator Whitehouse in particular I really want to single out as probably the Member of the U.S. Senate who is focused on our oceans. He and I started collaborating on these issues about 6 years ago, right after I first came to the U.S. Senate, and I have learned a lot from Senator Whitehouse on these issues.
We have kind of been an odd couple. We don't always agree on everything politically, but on these issues and a lot of other issues we not only agree but our teams work together, we work together, and, importantly, we are getting a lot--a lot--done.
There have been a lot of folks who have really helped us in this regard and, again, in a bipartisan way. This bill is an important bill. This bill had three committees of the U.S. Senate and eight committees in the House.
So Members--whether it was Chairman Barrasso and Ranking Member Carper of the EPW Committee, as I mentioned; on Foreign Relations, Chairman Risch; and, of course, Senator Menendez as the ranking member on the Commerce Committee; Chairman Wicker and Ranking Member Cantwell; on the House side, I just got off the phone with the dean of the House, Congressman Don Young, a great, great Congressman; Representative Bonamici. She also has been a great advocate.
We all were aware of the challenge. This is a huge challenge: ocean debris, plastics. It is a gigantic challenge for my State.
Now, I brag about Alaska a lot. Here is a little bit more bragging: We have more coastline than the rest of the country combined, in terms of their coastline. So we see the garbage. We see the trash. We see it, unfortunately, washing up on the shores of Alaska, and that impacts negatively not just the environment but the economy, our fishing industry, our fishing communities, our coastal communities.
You may have heard about this World Economic Forum study that said if we don't do anything about the pollution challenge that relates to plastics, by 2050 there could be more weight in terms of plastics in the ocean than there are fish. Think about that. That is a challenge.
So we got to work, and here is the thing that I think is so exciting: This is a solvable issue. Estimates are that up to 80 percent of all plastics in the ocean around the globe come from 10 rivers in Asia and Africa. So, of course, it has a huge international component to it.
But I just want to thank both Senators Whitehouse and Menendez. I am going to turn the floor over to Senator Menendez to say a few words on this, particularly the international side, which is so important.
I will talk a little bit more about what is in the legislation, but this is an example--and it happens a lot; we don't always read about it--of this body coming together on big issues and making a big impact.
So Save Our Seas 2.0 is heading to the President's desk. I do want to compliment the President and his team. They had a lot to do with this. They have been very motivated on these issues as well.
This is everybody coming together to address a problem that we know is a problem but that we can solve, and we are putting American leadership out front, which will be good for Alaska, good for Rhode Island, good for New Jersey, good for America, and good for the world.
Senator Menendez.
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Mr. SULLIVAN. Let me wrap up here by mentioning that, as we already talked about, the Congressional Research Service has called this the most comprehensive ocean cleanup legislation ever to come out of the Congress. As Senator Whitehouse said, 6 years ago, we were starting at nothing. And then we got Save Our Seas 1.0, primarily about cleaning up our own coastlines.
There are a lot of funny stories there, but we did have a really interesting--and I thought entertaining--signing ceremony at the White House with the President and Senator Whitehouse. The two hadn't met before. They got along really well, particularly talking about this issue. And it did motivate the Trump administration to start focusing more. You may have seen in the new NAFTA, the USMCA, the first trade agreement has a whole section on ocean cleanup and a whole section on fisheries and sustainable fisheries. This is a really important precedent for the U.S. government, regardless of party.
As Senator Menendez mentioned, a lot of focus internationally. I want to thank him again, in terms of the Foreign Relations Committee. Our ability to help other countries--we are certainly not perfect, but the big challenge on a lot of the oceans, in terms of cleanup and what comes onto the shores of the United States, what comes onto the shores of Alaska in terms of plastics and pollution, comes from overseas. We need to help there. As Senator Whitehouse also mentioned, improving our domestic infrastructure to prevent marine debris--so we are setting our own example, not just helping other countries--and then enhancing our own domestic response.
Senator Whitehouse mentioned this Marine Debris Foundation. This is a congressionally chartered private organization. There are not many in the country. This is a big deal. Thank the Red Cross. Thank the American Legion. These are congressionally chartered organizations that will give this effort public-private partnership energy to address the problem. That is exactly what we are focused on here, and that is why we thought it was so important to have a Marine Debris Foundation as an enduring element of the U.S. leadership that is now exemplified by Save our Seas 2.0.
I will mention one final thing. You know, one of the things that I thought was very important--we are going to keep this together--is we worked hard not to single out one industry or one area: Hey, you are not doing a good job; you need to get your act together. What we said when we put this bill together is we are going to bring in all the stakeholders--Democrats, Republicans, the executive branch, Federal agencies, industry, key environmental groups, ocean conservancy, World Wildlife Foundation--and get everybody together--the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which is an initiative in the private sector, and say: What can we do together to solve this problem? That is what we did. All the stakeholders came together. Everybody worked closely together, good ideas, pulling on the same oar. And that is how we got this done.
You know, one of our finest Senators, Lamar Alexander, gave his farewell speech just last week, and he talked about this idea of a split screen in the Senate. Yes, there is contention. Yes, there are battles. The media loves to play those up. But there is also another element about what we do here where there is strong bipartisan support on really big issues: the CARES Act, the NDAA, the Great American Outdoors Act--probably the biggest conservation bill in 50 years--21st Century Cures; these are all things that we are getting done here that matter to the American people in a bipartisan way. You don't always read about them in the press, but they are still happening. And now we can add to that list the biggest ocean cleanup legislation in the history of the country going to the President's desk for signing here in the next couple of days. It is something our fellow Americans should know about. And as Senator Whitehouse said, we are going to build on that too.
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