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

Floor Speech

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Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, I am very concerned with regard to the House CJS appropriations bill and the drastic cuts to climate research. The House bill provides for $69 million below the President's request and $37.5 million below the 2014 level. These cuts endanger our economy, our recovery, would harm our understanding of climate change, and will set scientists back years with regard to understanding our climate.

Climate research is critical for our economy. It provides us with forecasts beyond 2 weeks, including heat waves, hurricanes, droughts, and tornado predictions. Cutting these functions would negatively impact transportation, agriculture, commerce, and all industries that make important planning decisions based on these long-term forecasts. Cutting this important investment will hurt economic growth and destroy jobs in these critical sectors.

Based on climate research information, some examples of how it is used are: a cargo ship can reroute its course to circumvent a storm; a trucker can choose a different road to mitigate delays; or a water manager may restrict types of water use to plan for extended droughts, like we have had in Colorado these last few years.

The Second Congressional District of Colorado is home to two world-class universities--the University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado State University at Fort Collins--in addition to the numerous Federal labs, collaborative institutes, and research institutions. I am proud to represent a community that has deep roots in science, with many scientists among my constituents, providing technology, research, and innovation in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Science is an incredibly important driver of economic growth in my district.

Federally funded research is a linchpin in helping our country understand and respond to the concerns of climate change, severe storms, drought, and fire risks. We need to invest more in climate research in order to plan for and respond to severe weather events and climate events, reducing damage and increasing economic growth. That is why, for the second year in a row, I was proud to lead an appropriations letter, along with 73 of my colleagues, requesting full funding for the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Science. Climate research is an important part of this program.

I urge my colleagues to support climate research and restore critical funding to at least the 2014 levels, and hopefully more, so that we can have the very best science guiding our decisions, provided to companies in commerce, transportation, and agriculture, and employing the very best information that we have with regards to climate science.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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