Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Madam Chair, this bill is providing reasonable levels of funding for research and development to the National Science Foundation and NASA, but in the NOAA accounts, climate research is singled out for major cuts below last year's spending.

It seems there are a number of us who believe that we can improve weather forecasting without doing climate research. This simply is not the case.

The distinction between weather and climate is created by the time period we define to examine the temperature, precipitation, humidity, and other atmospheric phenomena we are experiencing.

As our society and our economy have become more advanced, more interconnected, and more global, we increasingly operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. For better or worse, we assume that everything can and is operating all the time. Well, often because of weather conditions, that assumption is challenged. Travel delays in the airline industry alone due to weather events can result in multibillion-dollar losses.

Phenomena such as droughts and floods and fires are not merely single weather events. Their probability of occurrence, duration, and intensity is a function of climactic factors thatÐ can only be understood and predictedÐ if we can better understand short-,Ð medium-, and long-term climate trends.

I would note that the bill before us retains funding for the National Drought Information System. That is good news. But by cutting the climate research that drives improvements in the information delivered through this system, we are stifling the potential for this tool to provide better information to farmers, to ranchers, water managers, energy utilities, and the many other businesses, communities, and citizens who require dependable, adequate water supplies.

It was climate research that led to our much-improved understanding of the El Nino and La Nina cycles that drive predictable changes in weather. As a result, farmers are able to adjust crop varieties or practices to prevent losses.

We are spending an increasing amount of money every year on relieving drought, fighting forest fires, and on relieving disasters from tornadoes, hurricanes, and flood events. Instead of cutting climate research funds, we

should be expanding them. Instead, this Congress continues to deny what is all too obvious to many of our citizens and to those of other nations: that climate change is underway.

Some of our agricultural systems, transportation systems, and essential infrastructure are at risk. We can adapt. We can redesign and rebuild infrastructure, but we need to know where to concentrate our efforts and what type of adaptations will be necessary. We need to have a better understanding of the rate of change that we will experience. Climate research is providing that understanding.

In February last year, the Government Accountability Office added the financial risk of climate change to its High Risk List. This past February, GAO testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the fiscal liability associated with weather and climactic disasters.

GAO's recent work on this topic found that the number of disaster declarations increased from 65 in 2004 to 98 in 2011. The financial risk from the two primary Federal insurance programs--National Flood Insurance Program and the Federal Crop Insurance Program--are over $1 trillion. We paid over $60 billion on Hurricane Sandy recovery alone. And these are only the financial costs.

Hurricanes Irene and Lee swept through my district in 2012. I saw firsthand the suffering caused by these storms. The loss of human lives and the destruction of homes and communities exact a terrible cost on those who experience these devastating events.

We should be doing much more to spare our citizens from these experiences. With financial exposure of over $1 trillion and the known risks to individuals, communities, businesses, and infrastructure from climate and weather, it is absurd to claim that we are saving money by cutting $37 million from these programs.

We must do our part to ensure that future generations have the opportunities that our parents and grandparents secured for us. Past generations built this Nation through their willingness to tackling the challenges of their time, by believing in the future of this Nation, and by investing in it.

Climate change is real, and it will not have less impact if we pretend it isn't happening. We must stop ignoring this problem. We can choose to deny. We can bury our heads in the sand. When that sand is washed away, however, by climate change, it is over.

Climate research is vital to our national security, our food security, our economic security, and to our future as a Nation. We should continue this important research effort and use the knowledge gained from it to inform and implement an adaptive strategy.

With that, I urge support for this amendment and yield back the balance of my time.

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