Saving the Ooi Act of 2026
Floor Speech
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I appreciate being here on the floor with my colleague from Oregon and working on this very important Ocean Observatories Initiative.
As he has outlined, understanding what is happening in our oceans is so key; it so critical. It is not just about how it impacts the fish and the habitat within our oceans; it is about the impact that our oceans have on the planet, recognizing that when you see warming waters, that has impact on the weather, on the jet stream, understanding all of that--understanding from the purposes of what it means from an industry perspective.
In my State and in the State of Oregon--also a State that has strong fisheries--it is important to understand the science so that we are making sound fisheries management decisions--sound for the fisheries and the resource itself, sound for the economies in those coastal communities that rely on them. So good science is really, really important.
As Senator Merkley has mentioned, we have an extraordinary system in place with this Ocean Observatories Initiative--a network of 900 deep- sea instruments that are providing real-time data to help us monitor the ocean conditions, predict extreme weather, and protect the coastal communities and maritime industries.
These are all over our oceans. As the Senator from Oregon has noted, the Coastal Endurance Array is in the Pacific Northwest. There is an array that is in the Gulf of Alaska, the Global Station Papa Array. This is 600 nautical miles off the coast, more than 2\1/2\ miles beneath the surface of the water. So these are down deep. These are gathering information that is hard to get. These are systems that are not only in the Pacific, but we have the array that is situated between Greenland and Iceland. I was just out in that region, and people were talking about the significance of the data that comes from this.
So, again, we have an extraordinary system that has been put in place, and then you have an announcement that caught everyone by surprise when the National Science Foundation said: We are going to begin dismantling one of our most complex ocean-monitoring systems.
This is all happening at a time when everybody is talking about El Nino and what that is going to bring in terms of the potential for extreme weather events. This is not the time to be turning off one of our most valuable scientific assets.
So this is an investment that has been made. It represents actually decades of investment. It makes the data publicly available so that every American--whether you are a fisherman, a university researcher, our U.S. Coast Guard who is performing rescue operations--they can all safely operate.
So Congress has made really clear that we intend to maintain this cost-effective system by ensuring that we have funding for the program in our annual appropriations bill. As appropriators, that is our job. And enough Senators and Congressmen have agreed that it was a prudent use of taxpayer dollars to do just that.
Normally, we would reiterate our intent through the appropriations process by funding the system and including language prohibiting funds from being used for the dismantling, but we just felt that time was of the essence. As the Senator from Oregon has noted, when they are dismantling--they have already begun as of yesterday--expedient measures are necessary.
Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4822, which was introduced earlier today.
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. I know of no further debate on the bill.
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from Oregon. This was fast-moving. He and I were able to join together with letters. We were able to gather additional colleagues who weighed in on this. And then to be able to move with the consent of the rest of this body this evening to advance rapidly this measure I think speaks to the importance of the initiative itself.
But I also want to acknowledge the strong support from Senator Merkley in this initiative as we work to ensure that we have good, sound science and the investments that we have made to allow for that to continue. I just wanted to publicly thank him.
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