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May 17, 2005

Democrats Work To Strengthen NOAA And Protect American Jobs

(Washington, DC) The House Science Committee passed several bills today to advance and promote Earth Science measures. Democrats worked to strengthen legislation to protect American jobs, enhance public safety and economic security regarding weather predication and preparedness, and create educational opportunities for historically underserved students.

Bills under consideration included H.R. 50, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Act; H.R. 426, Remote Sensing Applications of 2005; H.R. 1022, the George E. Brown Near-Earth Object Survey Act; and H.R. 2364, to establish a NOAA Science and Technology Scholarship Program.

H.R. 50 is intended to formally codify NOAA as an agency and define its missions. NOAA was created by Executive Order through the merger of a number of organizations in 1970. To date, the agency has no formally authorized mission or administrative structure. In a report to Congress last year, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy recommended that Federal NOAA "organic act" legislation be considered for proper recognition and designation. H.R. 50 is designed to meet that need.

Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL) attempted to strengthen H.R. 50 by offering an amendment to ensure that American tax dollars are spent to support American jobs, not outsource them to foreign countries. A second-order amendment offered by Chairman Sherwood Boehlert changed the emphasis of Rep. Costello’s amendment to reflect the Administration’s preference that the focus be on complying with international trade agreements even at the expense of taxpayer-funded American jobs.

"Once again, a common-sense amendment to protect American jobs and services from being outsourced to foreign countries has been defeated by the Republican majority," said Rep. Costello. "While American jobs are being lost overseas and our manufacturing base continues to shrink, the Republican majority insists on protecting the trade laws responsible for this situation instead of U.S. workers. We should be very clear about this - a vote against my amendment was a vote against the working men and women of this country."

Chairman Boehlert’s amendment to protect international trade agreements was agreed to over unanimous Democratic and one Republican objection. The vote was 18-17.

Democratic Members also worked to clarify the language in H.R. 50 related to any transfer of an earth observing system from NASA to NOAA - an issue of growing concern in the user community - and to strengthen language designed to establish a regular process for any realignment of NOAA facilities.

"The bill defines a broad mission for NOAA to allow this agency to grow and change as needed to serve our resource needs as our nation grows and changes," stated Ranking Member Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN). "However, I do not believe the broadly defined mission in this bill should serve as an invitation to this or a future Administration to transfer programs from other agencies to NOAA without sufficient planning and adequate funding."

Both Rep. Gordon and Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO) indicated that they remain concerned that the facility closure language needed to be strengthened further. Rep. Udall noted, "We want to work with the Chairman and with our friends on Resources to insure that we get that language right. I think we need to learn a little more about what might be at risk before we settle on final language for the consideration on the House floor."

The remaining bills passed the Committee with broad bipartisan support.

H.R. 426, sponsored by Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Udall previously passed the House in 2002. The bill provides state and local communities with high-tech help in dealing with growth, homeland security and forest fire management. The bill establishes a program of grants for competitively awarded pilot projects through NASA to explore the integrated use of sources of remote sensing and other geospatial information to address state, local, regional and tribal agency needs.

"By giving states and local communities greater access to geospatial data from commercial sources and federal agencies such as NASA, we can help bring valuable and powerful informational planning resources to the table," stated Rep. Udall.

H.R. 2364, authorizing NOAA to establish a college scholarship-for-service program, was successfully amended by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) to emphasize the need to work with historically Black Colleges, Universities and other institutions serving large minority populations.

Consideration of H.R. 1022 was postponed earlier this year and it passed the Committee today without amendment. This bill establishes a small authorization for NASA to continue tracking comets and asteroids that pose a threat of collision with Earth. The bill was adopted without amendment. The bill is named for the former Democratic Chairman of the Science Committee, the late George E. Brown, Jr., who in 1991 was first to bring the need for such tracking to the attention of Congress.

Related Subcommittees