H.R. 3650, H.R. 3585, H.R. 3598
Opening Statement By Chairman Bart Gordon
Good morning, and welcome.
Today the Committee will consider three bills reported last week from the Energy and Environment Subcommittee.
First, we will consider a bill by the Subcommittee’s Chairman Brian Baird, and co-authored by the Research and Science Education Ranking Member, Dr. Ehlers. H.R. 3650, the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2009, seeks to address the devastating effects that rapid overproduction of algae can have on aquatic plant and animal life and human health.
The bill directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to implement research strategies to better understand and respond to algal blooms and hypoxic events.
Next, we will consider H.R. 3585, the Solar Technology Roadmap Act, authored by the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chair, Ms. Gabrielle Giffords. This bill instructs the Department of Energy to coordinate with public and private sector entities in developing a comprehensive, updatable roadmap for solar research, development, and demonstration activities in the U.S.
This roadmap will be a critical tool in utilizing limited research dollars as effectively as possible to harness the truly immense solar resources we have in the U.S.
Finally, we will take up my bill, H.R. 3598, the Energy and Water Research Integration Act. In the last Congress this Committee undertook a comprehensive review of federal research and technology development efforts focused on improving utilization of our precious water resources. We have since held 5 hearings and passed out of the House 3 bills pertaining to this important topic.
With H.R. 3598 we address the critical linkage between our nation’s energy and water resources by directing the Department of Energy to better integrate water into existing federal energy research efforts.
The three bills we have before us today target several important research needs. As always we appreciate the Minority offering a number of valuable ideas and suggestions, and we have worked hard to incorporate almost all of them in an effort to improve these bipartisan bills.
Despite this, I see that the Minority will have a number of amendments. While it is unfortunate these concerns could not be resolved before the markup I look forward to a healthy debate on the amendments, and supporting these bills for final passage.
I thank you all for your attendance and participation this morning, and I look forward to a productive markup.