Chesapeake Bay Gateways And Watertrails Network Continuing Authorization Act

Floor Speech

Chesapeake Bay Gateways And Watertrails Network Continuing Authorization Act

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Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend, Chairman Grijalva, for yielding, and I thank Mr. Sarbanes for his leadership on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong support for H.R. 965, legislation introduced by Representative John Sarbanes, whose father established this program some years ago and who was one of my closest friends, and still is, and with whom I worked very closely on this particular piece of legislation and so many other items directed at the environment in general and the Chesapeake Bay in particular.

This bill permanently reauthorizes the National Park Service's Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network Program. Those of us fortunate enough to live in the region have been blessed with a multitude of magnificent national resources, not the least of which is the Nation's largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay, a body of water that has played such an important role in shaping the cultural, economic, political and social history of our region.

Unfortunately, the Chesapeake Bay of 2009 is not the pristine body that Captain John Smith first chartered on his expedition some 400 years ago. Indeed, earlier this year, the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program released the Chesapeake Bay's 2008 Health and Restoration Assessment which found the overall health of the bay remained degraded and that the Bay Program is still far short of most restoration goals. Shortly thereafter, the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science issued a report card grading the bay's health as a C-minus for the second year in a row. That obviously is not good news, nor is it acceptable.

Over the years, I have joined with many of my colleagues in supporting a number of legislative initiatives and securing millions of dollars focused on the restoration effort. While some progress has been made, clearly, as those reports indicate, much remains to be done.

I am heartened, Mr. Speaker, by the commitment of President Obama and his administration to the Chesapeake Bay. On May 12, President Obama issued an Executive order declaring that the restoration of the Bay requires a renewed commitment to controlling pollution, protecting habitat, conserving land, and improving management of natural resources. I have the privilege of living on one of the tributaries that flows into the Chesapeake Bay, the Patuxent River, and I know how critical it is. We have the Anacostia River here and the Potomac River here in our city.

The President declared that the Federal Government should lead this effort and established a Federal Leadership Committee for the Chesapeake Bay consisting of relevant agencies which would be chaired by the EPA administrator. The agencies were directed to draft and submit reports to the committee making specific recommendations for protecting the Chesapeake Bay. The initial reports are slated to be made public today, which makes this effort very timely.

H.R. 965, the legislation we are now considering, takes another important step forward in our efforts by permanently authorizing a program that has already done so much to raise awareness of the fragile health of the bay and directly engage our region's citizens and visitors to take an active role in fulfilling our shared goal of restoring the Chesapeake.

The Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, which includes more than 150 museums, State parks, wildlife refuges, and other sites in six States and the District of Columbia was established, Mr. Speaker, to link together these wonderful places in the hopes of enabling visitors to better understand and appreciate the role they can play in the bay's survival.

Unfortunately and tragically, much of the bay's stress is man-made. The program enables sites to compete for grant funding which must be fully matched for projects that will help conserve, restore, and interpret their roles in the bay's natural, cultural, and social history. The Gateways Program is a critical component to fostering a commitment among our citizens to restore the bay, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

In closing, let me thank Mr. Grijalva for his leadership in bringing this to the floor and Mr. Sarbanes for his sponsorship and continuing the extraordinary legacy that his father over 30 years in the United States Senate and 6 years in the House of Representatives contributed to this country and to the Chesapeake Bay and our environment in particular.

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