LEXIS-NEXIS® Congressional Universe-Document

Search Terms: "Lands Legacy Initiative", House or Senate or Joint

Document 55 of 118.

MARCH 19, 1999, FRIDAY

SECTION: IN THE NEWS

LENGTH: 5830 words

HEADLINE: PREPARED TESTIMONY OF
DR. D. JAMES BAKER
BEFORE THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, JUSTICE, STATE, THE JUDICIARY
AND RELATED AGENCIES

BODY:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Subcommittee, for this opportunity to testify on the President's FY 2000 Budget Request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
I am accompanied today by Terry Garcia, Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, Scott B. Gudes, Deputy Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, and Paul F. Roberts, Chief Financial Officer/Chief Administrative Officer.
Before I begin, let me state that because of investments championed by this subcommittee, NOAA is a world leader in weather and climate research and forecasts, environmental monitoring and research, fisheries management, and sustainable use of the coast. This proposed budget is a good budget for NOAA; this is a good budget for the Department of Commerce; this is a good budget for America!
This budget demonstrates our commitment to meeting our responsibilities for investing in and maintaining our infrastructure. The challenge of investing strategically in the Nation's future requires continuing investments in NOAA's infrastructure, including investments in our people. The FY 2000 budget request includes essential funding to meet these investment needs. Most notably, the budget meet these investment needs request:
- includes funding to address our data acquisition needs by providing for the first of four new Fisheries Research Vessels (FRVs), while at the same time increasing the number of days-at-sea by 245 for University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) ship time for critical data collection needs for the Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) and Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Alagal Bloom (ECOHAB) programs.
- provides funding to maintain our supercomputing capacity at the NWS Central Computing Facility in Suitland, Maryland, and the Forecast Systems Lab (FSL) in Boulder, Colorado while acquiring a massively parrallel, scalable computer to be located at OAR's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab (GFDL), in Princeton, New Jersey. provides increased recurring lease and/or operations costs at a number of NOAA facilities coming on-line in FY 1999 and FY 2000, such as the Santa Cruz and KodiakFisheries Laboratories, the Marine Environmental Health Research Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina and the David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder, Colorado. At the same time funds are requested to complete the planning and design of a new state-of-the-art NMFS research facility near Juneau, Alaska.
- provides adjustments-to-base for pay related and inflationary cost increases to the National Weather Service, as well as for the FY 2000 pay raise for the remaining Line Offices.
- includes funds to begin replacing outdated observing equipment in order to maintain continuity of core data and services and provides funds for continuing technology infusion for systems developed for the Weather Service Modernization;
- reflects the Administration's plans to restructure and maintain the NOAA Corps and includes Payments for Retired Pay for Commissioned Officers as mandatory funding;
- includes $1.0 million to establish educational training relationships through a joint partnership with a consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). These efforts would not only result in the education of new marine, atmospheric and environmental scientists, but would also assist manycoastal communities in the development of new business and environmental engineering alternatives to support sustainable economic development; and,
- provides funds to accelerate the implementation of the Commerce Administrative Management System (CAMS), which is critical to meeting NOAA's financial management requirements.
We, at NOAA, know that performance is what counts! Therefore, our FY 2000 budget includes measures that will track results to the level of investment.
NOAA's FY 2000 request is for $2.6 billion in total budget authority which includes $2.5 billion in discretionary budget authority. This request collectively represents a 12.9% increase over the total budget authority appropriated for FY 1999.
The request is predicated on the need to ensure the continued delivery of essential science, technology and services to the Nation. The President's Budget Request also allows NOAA to perform an essential role in a number of Departmental, interagency and Presidential initiatives, including the Lands Legacy Initiative and other importantcomponents of the Ocean 2000 Initiative, the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative, the Climate in the 21st Century Initiative, and building the capacity of the Nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Let me take a moment to say a few words about some of these important activities.
Ocean 2000
Ocean and coastal resources are the foundation of the Nation's coastal and regional economies. One-third of the U.S. GDP and one-half of the Nation's jobs are produced in the coastal zone through industries such as fishing, tourism, and marine transportation. With increasing national attention on the value of the ocean and coastal resources and the important role of ocean navigation and shipping, the $317.6 million Ocean 2000 initiative will increase the protection, restoration and sustainable use of the Nation's ocean and coastal resources.
The Ocean 2000 crosscut integrates the Administration's Lands Legacy programs and initiatives supporting the Year Of The Ocean (YOTO), Resource Protection, South Florida ecosystems restoration and research, and implementation of NOAA's responsibilities under the Clean Water Action Plan.
Lands Legacy
NOAA's FY 2000 budget requests $105 million of new funding to fulfill the environmental goals outlined in the Administrations Lands Legacy Initiative.
The economic and environmental well-being we derive from the abundant and essential natural resources and the beauty provided by coastal ecosystems is being undermined by the very critical economic and aesthetic uses that make these diverse areas so valuable to the Nation. Escalating losses and degradation of coastal wetlands, fisheries habitat, and coral reef ecosystems must be reversed.
NOAA has the vision, expertise and partnerships to successfully confront this challenge. The request includes funding for targeted investments to: strengthen and expand protection of the Nation's most significant ocean and coastal areas; restore critical coastal habitat and vibrant coral reef ecosystems; and provide states and coastal communities with the tools and resources for environmentally-sound and economically-sustainable "smart growth." Some examples of our investments include:$32.

0 million for Coastal Zone Management of which: $28.0 million will help states and localities, through Section 310 of the Coastal Zone Management Act, to implement community-based solutions to restore or enhance coastal resources and community revitalization.
- $2.0 million for coastal non-point pollution control program development (Section 6217); and,
- $2.0 million for Section 309 Grants for coastal non-point pollution control program implementation.
NOAA will work with 32 Coastal Zone Management state partners and coastal communities by providing grants and technical assistance to improve land use and address impacts of increased development and urban sprawl on coastal resources.
An increase of $15.0 million will be used to strengthen the nation's only system of marine protected areas, the National Marine Sanctuary program. The Sanctuary System will be enhanced by bolstering operational capabilities at the twelve existing sites, expanding Sanctuary educational and outreach opportunities, and positioning the System for the future by beginning the planning process in consultationwith states and communities to identify possible new sites. This represents growth in the Marine Sanctuary Program funding by a factor of four since FY 1993 (a total of $29.0 million.
In addition an increase of $14.7 million will be used to enhance the protection of critical estuaries by providing funds to states and communities for the acquisition of lands from willing sellers in and around the existing National Estuarine Research Reserves System ($19 million total), as well as strengthening existing management and upgrading facilities at these sites.
More than 95 percent of U.S. overseas trade by tonnage (excluding Mexico and Canada) passes through U.S. ports and harbors. It is often necessary for our ports and harbors to dredge deeper channels to accommodate larger and larger sized cargo ships. Such efforts must be undertaken in a way that protects the environment, including a continued commitment to environmentally sound dredging and safe disposal or reuse of dredged materials. An increase of $10.0 million is requested for NOAA to work with the Corps of Engineers, other federal and state agencies, and coastal communities to help them avoid costly delays in the dredging process and to determine ways to use material dredged fromports and shipping channels to restore important coastal habitats.
Coral reefs are exquisite yet endangered ecosystems which sustain tourism, recreation and fishing industries worth billions of dollars in economic activity. New funding of $10.0 million will enable NOAA, by working with states and other agencies, to restore injured reefs in Puerto Rico, Florida, Hawaii, U.S. territories and the commonwealths. Funding will be provided for: development and implementation of emergency restoration activities; restoration of small to moderate- sized injured sites; development of coral nurseries to provide donor material for restoration projects; monitoring to evaluate restoration effectiveness; and the transfer of restoration technologies to other coastal stewards. This request complements and supports the $2 million Coral Reef Protection increase requested under the Year of the Ocean Initiative.
Finally under this Initiative, NOAA requests $22.7 million to increase the number and geographical scope of communitybased habitat restoration efforts that generate quality coastal or river habitat to improve survival of many salt water fish species nationwide.
It is the intention of the Administration that funding for the Lands Legacy Initiative be derived from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Although the fund has traditionally been used to fund programs within the Department of Interior, there is clear authority for it to be used for certain NOAA programs.
Year of the Ocean
At the 1998 National Ocean Conference in Monterey, California, the President launched a series of major initiatives to explore, protect and restore America's vital ocean resources. Highlighting the important role the ocean plays in the daily lives of all Americans, the Administration introduced measures to promote new scientific insight into the oceans, sustain use of fisheries and other marine resources, provide new opportunities for economic growth, and protect fragile coastal communities and ecosystems, such as coral reefs, from damage and environmental degradation.
NOAA's FY 2000 budget request ($78.1 million) for the Year of the Ocean (YOTO) Initiative includes increases of:
- $5.2 million to promote safe and efficient navigation, through balanced investment that will improve thecompetitiveness of U.S. ports and exports while lowering the risk of marine accidents and resulting pollution. Within this amount, an increase of $2.75 million will enable NOAA to fully develop and implement quality assurance and modernization capabilities required to support the installation of additional Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems (PORTS) through cost sharing partnerships.
$4.0 million to better understand the role of oceans in shaping our weather and climate. Finer measurements of ocean data are needed to track climate shifts, understand the interaction of the oceans and atmosphere, and predict severe weather and the regional impacts of global climate change. Funds will be used to construct, deploy and operate an array of 1000 profiling autonomous floats for data collection in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
$58.2 million for Fisheries Data Collection Capacity, Stock Assessments and Fisheries Conservation, and Management, including:
- $51.6 million to construct the first of four new state-of-the-art research vessels necessary to conduct essential stock assessment surveys and monitor fish and marine mammal species, assess ecological changes and provide the best availabledata to rebuild sustainable fisheries. These new ships will be both calibrated and acoustically quiet to mitigate disturbance of sea-life under study. The ships will complement our increasing charters with research partners in industry and academia and will modernize NOAA's aging fleet of research vessels.
$2.6 million for NOAA to carry out requirements of the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act.
$2.0 million for enhanced observer coverage to carry out increased observer workload mandated in the Act.
$2.0 million to support work on fisheries oceanography to improve stock predictions by identifying and assessing critical environmental processes controlling long-term trends in the Nation's fishery production. A network of biophysical moorings in the North Pacific Ocean will provide data on key oceanographic indicators and give greater insight into environmentally-induced shifts in the productivity of commercially important fish stocks.$4.6 million for NOAA, in cooperation with industry, Federal, and State partners, to develop and promote an environmentally friendly and commercially viable domestic marine Aquaculture industry. Of this amount, $3.6 million will support an OAR program on Mariculture, and $1.0 million is for NMFS to work with industry to develop environmentally sound Aquaculture standards.
$2.0 million in order to work with the states, U.S. territories and commonwealths, and local communities, to carry out important research, monitoring, management and mapping of the Nation's coral reef system. These funds will be used to better understand the state of this fragile ecosystem and help identify solutions to protect this vital resource.
$4.1 million to unravel deep-sea mysteries, discover new opportunities in the ocean, and better understand how to protect marine resources. These funds will launch a program to map and explore U.S. ocean waters with advanced underwater technology, and support an economic evaluation of the contribution that the oceans vast resources provide to the Nation's economy and environment. Resource Protection
Development is posing an increasing threat to numerous marine species and their habitat. The number of species either listed by NOAA under the Endangered Species Act or under consideration for listing is growing. Stemming this crisis of extinction is one of NOAA's greatest challenges. NOAA is committed to preventing the extinction of at-risk marine species, and restoring their habitat and ecosystems.

Our ongoing efforts to protect and conserve our natural resources include establishing greater public involvement in conservation planning, creating incentives for landowners and states to protect species and their habitat in order to prevent the need to list, and entering into long-term conservation plans with landowners.
NOAA's FY 2000 budget request includes over $130 million to support the Resource Protection Initiative, including:
$100.0 million to establish a Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery account for grants that will bolster salmon recovery through a new partnership agreement that will double the federal dollars with matching non- federal contributions. The Presidential initiative focuses onimproving federal conservation activities and building crucial federal-state- tribal partnerships to share limited resources while improving scientific information to ensure a lasting recovery of salmon. Many salmon runs are at risk of extinction in California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.
$2.6 million to characterize and map biodiversity and protected species habitat. These efforts will permit the identification of crucial habitat for the conservation of at-risk species and will identify increased conservation efforts under the ESA.
$27.5 million for Endangered Species Act (ESA) Recovery Planning to stem the decline of highly endangered species including Atlantic and Pacific Salmon, leatherback and loggerhead turtles, Hawaiian monk seals, and North Atlantic right whales through protecting and restoring critical habitat; eliminating incidental take in commercial fisheries and conducting research and monitoring to determine species status and habitat requirements.
South FloridaNOAA's FY 2000 budget request includes $5.1 million to address issues related to the South Florida Everglades Restoration effort - an increase of $1.6 million over'
FY 1999 to support an integrated effort among federal, tribal, state and non-governmental partners to halt the degradation and restore the healthy function of the South Florida ecosystem.
NOAA supports the portion of the South Florida Everglades Initiative exclusively devoted to restoring and protecting the coastal and marine portions of the South Florida ecosystem such as fisheries habitat and coral reefs.
The Initiative has already produced significant accomplishments in this area. Continued investment is necessary to restore and maintain the marine ecosystem and the associated economies of South Florida Bay, and the Florida Keys.
Clean Water Initiative (CWI)
NOAA's FY 2000 budget request includes a total of $22.0 million to support the Administration's Clean Water Initiative, an increase of $5.8 million over FY 1999. This Initiative will help protect coastal communities from toxics and reduce the flow of pollution into coastal waters fromnonpoint sources (e.g., runoff from agricultural fields, city streets, and other areas). Polluted runoff is now a major source of coastal water pollution and one of the primary factors associated with outbreaks of harmful algal blooms (e.g., pfiesteria) and the spread of hypoxic zones in U.S. coastal waters.
Communities, businesses and human health are increasingly threatened by polluted runoff and the symptoms of polluted coastal waters. For example, every year degraded water quality causes warnings or closures of thousands of beaches resulting in losses to tourism and recreation industries. Degraded water quality continues to close or restrict the use of nearly 30 percent of U.S. shellfish growing areas. This includes 4.5 million acres or 50 percent of the shellfish growing area in the Gulf of Mexico, the Nation's top shellfish-producing region.
Over the past 20 years, harmful algal blooms have affected nearly every coastal state and produced an estimated $1.0 billion in economic losses. The increasing frequency and magnitude of these problems suggests that significant action is required now to reduce the costs and symptoms of nonpoint source pollution, and improve the quality of U.S. coastal waters.An increase of $4.0 million under the Clean Water Initiative (also presented under the Lands Legacy Initiative CZM component), will address polluted runoff by providing CZM states with additional resources to develop and implement coastal non-point control programs. At this point, I want to highlight to the Committee our strong opposition to the $2.0 million rescission in the FY 1999 Emergency Supplemental for non-point source pollution funds. These funds are important to the nation's coastal states as they develop and implement plans to alleviate and mitigate this expensive problem of non-point pollution.
$2.0 million, half of the FY 1999 appropriation, is a small but crucial amount of money that goes to the states.
An increase of $1.8 million will enable NOAA to increase its efforts in national pfiesteria research and monitoring. The increase will also allow NOAA to assist states, universities and communities in the development of detection and assay technologies essential for pfiesteria and other types of harmful algal bloom outbreaks.
Each of these components, integrated in the Ocean 2000 Initiative, is essential for ensuring the long-term health of our Nation's oceans and coastal areas. The FY 2000 budget reflects NOAA's commitment to meeting these needs andfulfilling our mission as the Nation's leader in ocean and coastal stewardship.
Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative (NDRI)
Natural hazards related to severe weather (hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms, droughts and floods) or geophysical activity (volcanoes, geomagnetic storms, earthquakes, and tsunamis) threaten lives, property and the stability of local and regional economies throughout the United States.
In FY 2000, NOAA requests a net increase of $42.1 million for the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative (NDRI) to implement a second phase of the Department's multi-agency strategy, which includes NOAA, EDA and NIST, to reduce and mitigate against the impacts of extreme natural events. The strategy calls for an end-to-end approach to natural disaster mitigation, from research to improve prediction and understanding of extreme events, to advances in developing response and recovery plans, to assessment of vulnerabilities of communities and infrastructure, and providing information, technology, and training to reduce vulnerability before and after natural disasters.
The modernization of the Weather Service represents a significant commitment by the Administration. The modernization effort has made considerable progress in providing more accurate and timely weather warnings and forecasts services. The National Weather Service (NWS) vision of becoming a "no surprise weather service" is becoming more and.more a reality today. The NWS has significantly improved its services since the 1974 supertornado outbreak. Just in the past five years, NWS has more than doubled tornado warning lead-times from 5 minutes in 1993 to approximately 11 minutes in 1998. These extra minutes have saved lives. In order to ensure that these improvements are sustained the FY 2000 Budget includes:
- an adjustment to base of $20.0 million in pay-related and inflationary cost increases and $12.3 million in programmatic changes to the National Weather Service to ensure the continuation of quality accurate and timely weather warnings and forecasts services to the public.
- $25.8 million to expand operation and maintenance support for the entire NWS Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) network and fund systems evolution activities.
- $2.7 million to support AWIPS operations and Weather Forecast Office (WFO) Facilities Construction at offices established as the result of mitigation actionsper the Secretary's Report Team recommendations on the adequacy of NEXRAD Coverage and Degradation of Weather Services under National Weather Service Modernization for: Caribou, Maine and Key West, Florida; andcontinue current operations at Erie, Pennsylvania; and Williston, North Dakota. An additional $1.0 million for mitigation activities is included in the Operations and Research request.
$3.

$3.
7 million for other NWS systems activities such as product improvement initiative and acquisition closeout activities for Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) and Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) and to provide commercial aircraft observations from the ARINC Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) for operational use in numerical weather prediction models.
$3.7 million for Weather Forecast Office Construction and Maintenance activities such as: construction of Alaska housing in remote areas and the implementation of corrective and preventive maintenance actions at selected WFOs across the country; in addition to continuing facility retrofit projects necessary to meet current usage requirements as well as safety and fire code regulations.The request includes an increase of $30.1 million for NOAA's share of the Polar Convergence (NPOESS) program, for a total request of $80.1 million in FY 2000. In FY 2000, the NPOESS program will continue Phase I design and development of five key sensors and initiate Phase II production of these sensors in FY 2001. This program will be jointly and equally funded by NOAA and DOD.
The request also includes an increase of $6.8 million for GOES N-Q spacecraft acquisition (a total program of $189.5 million for FY 2000), including development funds for advanced instruments to be ready for the GOES-Q satellite, and the upgrading and replacement of aging ground systems that will remain operational through the life of GOES-Q.
The FY 2000 Request also provides increases for maintaining the operational support for the on-orbit satellites and expanding the use of satellite data.
- $1.7 million will fund Satellite Operational Control Center (SOCC) non-discretionary labor and non-labor costs increases in order to avoid serious risk to the health and safety of the current operational satellites. This increase will also maintain adequate operational data processing capacity and engineering support for satellites data streams; and,$2.0 million will be used to establish an integrated Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN) to improve all phases of disaster management. This will be' a public/private partnership to develop acomprehensive information system for those who manage and those who are affected by disasters. The FY 2000 budget also includes funding for other projects that will enhance observation and prediction capabilities, such as:
- $6.4 million to continue the replacement and modernization of the obsolete upper air radiosonde network that provides critical upper air observations which are the principal data source for all weather forecasts. Modern radiosondes and ground receiving equipment will permit more efficient use of radio frequency spectrum and ensure reliable and consistent upper air data acquisition.
- $2.2 million to initiate the national implementation of the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction System (AHPS), an integrated real-time modeling and data management/analysis system for flood forecasts, in the upper Mississippi, including the Red River of the North and the Ohio River Basin. AHPS will expand and improveforecasts of river levels from days to several months in advance.
$4.3 million will be used for the GEOSTORM satellite, a follow-on to the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. This multi-agency program leverages the interests and requirements of NOAA, NASA and the Air Force to increase the lead time of warnings currently provided to power companies and other industries vulnerable to solar storms. These industries have told us to make GEOSTORM our number one priority as they now depend on solar wind warning products to trigger preventative measures that help avert wide-spread power blackouts and satellite failures.
$0.4 million will be used to provide for a second flight crew for NOAA's G-IV high altitude jet to meet the operational requirement of 24-hour storm surveillance. This funding will allow the jet to be flown on high priority back-to-back missions (12-hour intervals) during land-falling hurricanes. It will also permit storm tracking for long duration hurricanes when crew rest limitations may ground the aircraft.
Finally, an increase of $1.0 million is requested to expand work with coastal states and communities to develop coastal risk atlases and provide new remote sensing data in a moretimely and effective manner. This will enable coastal communities to better prepare for and recover from natural disasters.
Climate in the 21st Century
Over the past two years, climate variability has emerged as one of the most urgent, long-term strategic environmental security issues facing the United States. The demand for scientifically sound climate information by decision-makers and the public is accelerating. For this reason, as the Department prepares to enter the 21st century, NOAA requests $19.1 million to meet the Nation's climate service needs.
Underlying NOAA's ability to improve climate and weather models is maintaining state-of-the-art computer capabilities for world-class research. Included in this request is $5.7 million to acquire a massively parallel processing computer to improve forecasts of El Nino events, model climate variability, and make better hurricane predictions. Procurement of this computer will help close the computing gap between the U.S. and European climate centers.
Four key components of this initiative will provide critical funding for NOAA's unique responsibility to obtain long-termobservations of the ocean and atmosphere and maintain national data archives. They are:
- $1.2 million to restore and maintain operations at its baseline atmospheric observatories in Alaska, Hawaii, Samoa, and Antarctica,
- $3.0 million to begin the modernization of the Cooperative Reference Network and Rain Gauge Network ($1.5 million in NWS and $1.5 million in RESDIS). At present, NOAA uses paper punch tapes which are processed on a machine for which, there are no spare parts. It is one of two such machines in the world. We must move forward technologically on this, and
- $0.9 million for NESDIS to meet the increased demand for near real- time products, data, and information related to unusual weather, climate, and environmental events.
- $1.6 million to make long-term measurement of carbon dioxide in the ocean, develop new ocean data assimilation methods, and improve existing climate models.
NOAA is requesting $6.7 million for FY 2000 in the Climate and Global Change Program to launch new climate research projects. These will provide critical data to deepen our scientific understanding of, and thus our ability topredict, climate variability and change. The successful forecast of the 1997-1998 El Nino and the subsequent La Nina events demonstrated dramatically that this kind of research can realize tangible benefits. A well-documented predictive understanding of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and other aspects of how our climate works is needed to determine the effects of.climate anomalies on our daily lives, and is also needed to guide potential decisions regarding the role human influences play in climate change.
Beyond the waters of the tropical Pacific - where the ENSO signal is measured - are similar climate cycles that are as important to weather and climate patterns over North America as ENSO. NOAA plans to investigate and forecast these other key climate signals - the North Atlantic (or Arctic) Oscillation to learn the its effects on hurricane tracks and strengths in the Atlantic; and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and its impact on the Northwest salmon fishery. Learning more about these cycles will enable NOAA to improve both climate and weather forecasts and predict their impacts at regional levels. In turn, these predictions can be used by the effected populations to guide a range of decisions from emergency management to agriculture and fisheries.
NOAA also plans to investigate the recently-identified "North American carbon sink", describing on a regional scale the characteristics that lead to the net uptake of atmospheric carbon by the land. This will be done by sampling the atmosphere from aircraft flying at low altitudes, measuring carbon dioxide levels to see how they vary according to vegetation type and other terrestrial characteristics. NOAA will conduct similar experiments on tropospheric (low-altitude) ozone, measuring variations in its concentration to determine the importance of this gas in regional warming scenarios relative to carbon dioxide.

CONCLUSION/WRAP-UP
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the FY 2000 request builds on the progress we have made, with your assistance and support over. the past years. NOAA's environmental stewardship and assessment missions are essential to securing our Nation's success in the 21st Century.
In meeting our mission, NOAA continues to focus the efforts of government on what matters to the American people. Success in this changing world increasingly depends on partnerships with business and industry, universities, state and local governments and international parties. NOAA continues to develop these partnerships to leverageresources and talent, and provide the means for meeting program requirements more effectively.
For example:
The Penobscot Bay Collaborative, a multi-year pilot demonstration funded by the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) of NOAA, is demonstrating the applicability of environmental satellite oceanographic data to develop predictive tools for understanding lobster abundance in Penobscot Bay in the Gulf of Maine. In a cooperative effort with the State of Maine, local universities and the private sector, the project is helping to help provide improved environmental data and information to resource managers to help them understand and respond to changing ecological dynamics in both near-shore waters and coastal environments. A new generation of resource management tools using satellite ocean remote sensing data is being developed and tested for their suitability in building sustainable marine resource utilization.
The Penobscot Bay Collaborative is also contributing to complementary growth in Maine's emerging information technologies economic sector. The NOAA-NESDIS effort is being joined by a new economic developmentinitiative being promoted by Angus King, Governor of Maine. Known as "Jobs From the Sea", this State initiative is seeking to foster new and expanded' opportunities related to Maine's tremendously productive marine waters. A statewide bond issue of $20 million has recently been approved to leverage the State's investment for jobs development in the technology sector. Through this unique partnership between Federal, State and private organizations, the NESDIS-Maine Penobscot Bay Collaborative not only promotes Maine's emerging technology intensive sector (particularly in spatial information products and satellite application technologies), but also is envisioned to foster more sustainable management of Maine's natural resource-based industries. If successful, the goal is to enable resource managers, technology entrepreneurs, and private citizens will use environmental satellite data as routinely as they do now weather reports.
The FY 2000 budget is an investment for the 21st century, a step toward a more viable, economically sound, and ecologically sustainable future.., where environmental stewardship, assessment and prediction serve as keystones toenhancing economic prosperity and quality of life, better protecting lives and property, and strengthening U.S. trade.
Thank you again for the opportunity to appear. I wound be pleased to respond to any questions members of the Subcommittee may have.
END

LOAD-DATE: March 20, 1999

Document 55 of 118.


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