Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011: House of Representatives
Floor Speech
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, the Chesapeake Bay is a natural and national treasure. It is the largest estuary in the United States of America.
The health of the Chesapeake Bay is under constant assault from all sources of pollution: urban runoff, farm runoff, storm water runoff. We have been working for years and years, in fact decades, to try and clean up the bay, and it has been like running in place because, every time we take action, more pollution flows into the bay.
That's why, under the Obama administration, they've taken important action to try and finally get ahead of the curve and restore the health of the bay. Will Baker, who is the President of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, described the approach of the Obama administration as something that may well represent the bay's best and last chance for restoration. As Mr. Moran pointed out, if we don't do that, the watermen, the sports fishermen, and the tourist industry will be badly hurt.
I'm not sure that the gentleman from Virginia, who introduced this amendment, recognizes the impact it might have on farmers, because none of the funds in this act, including from EPA and the Department of Agriculture, may be used for a number of purposes, including watershed implementation plans for the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Now, we spoke to USDA's general counsel. Their office told us that this could well deprive farmers of some of their valuable agricultural conservation funds. The last I checked, Maryland received in fiscal year 2009 $28 million. In the State of Virginia, the farmers received about $16 million to help them with their conservation efforts because, as good stewards of the land, they have been part of the team effort to protect the Chesapeake Bay.
As Mr. Moran said, if you take these funds away, you are denying them some of the tools they have effectively used. So this won't only hurt the watermen and the sports fishermen; it is also going to hurt the farmers; and collectively it is going to hurt the largest estuary in the United States.
Let's work to save the bay, not undermine its health.
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