Latest Updates from On the Hill - June 2024

Recap: Important Ocean Budget Hearings

On Tuesday,  June 4, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad testified before the House Science Committee on his agency’s fiscal year 2025 (FY25) budget request. The discussion highlighted the importance of NOAA's work on environmental science, climate resilience, and weather forecasting—especially given the increasing frequency of extreme weather events. Concerns were raised over proposed funding cuts to critical programs within the National Ocean Service and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which could impact NOAA's capacity to execute its mission effectively. Read ESP Advisors’ summary here.

Other news highlights

National Ocean Month saw the announcement of several exciting ocean initiatives- four important news items during Capitol Hill Ocean Week alone!

• NOAA and the Department of Energy (DOE) signed an agreement to advance marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR).
• Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced final management plans for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts and Mariana Trench marine national monuments.
• The White House announced three new ocean-related strategies: the National Strategy for a Sustainable Economy, the National Ocean Biodiversity Strategy, and the National Aquatic Environmental DNA Strategy.

• NOAA formally designated the 16th national marine sanctuary in eastern Lake Ontario.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA-03) introduced the Protecting Coastal Communities Act (H.R.8718), a bill to prohibit wind energy development off the coast of Southern Washington and Northern Oregon unless a Government Accountability Office report can show the projects will not have adverse impacts on: shellfish aquaculture; commercial and recreational fishing; recreation and tourism; fisheries-dependent communities; Tribal resources; essential fish habitats; air quality and greenhouse gas emissions; finfish; and marine animals and invertebrates. 

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) introduced a bill (H.R.8704) to require the Secretary of Commerce to establish a grant program to foster enhanced coexistence between ocean users and North Atlantic right whales. Reps. Mary Peltola (D-AK-At Large), Austin Scott (R-GA-08), and Daniel Webster (R-FL-11) cosponsored the bill.

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA-06) introduced the bicameral Congressional Review Act to roll back the Biden Administration’s updated environmental review review process.

NOAA, in partnership with NASA, launched the GOES-U Satellite, the last of four in the GOES-R series of geostationary operational environmental satellites. The GOES-U will be carrying a new instrument—the nation’s first operational coronagraph, designed to observe the solar corona, or outermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere, in order to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections (CMEs) for space weather forecasting.

BOEM is keeping up the pace on offshore wind development. They announced an MoU with the State of Maryland to support the coordinated development of wind energy generation in the state’s offshore waters. BOEM also announced its approval of Sunrise Wind’s plan for construction and operations of a wind project located south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and east of Block Island, Rhode Island. Environmental Assessments are now available for the Gulf of Maine Wind Energy Area (draft), and the area off the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia coasts (final). Finally, BOEM is seeking ideas for baseline environmental and socioeconomic studies to inform BOEM’s decisions on potential offshore wind energy activities in the U.S. territories and site survey work is set to begin off the northern coast of California for the country’s first commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm. 

DOE announced $1.7 million for 16 hydropower projects and 12 marine energy projects to advance hydropower and marine energy technologies and their roles in achieving both national and local clean energy goals.  

In a new report, NOAA and the bureau of Economic Analysis found that the marine economy contributed $476 billion in economic impact in 2022, generating $777 billion in sales and 2.4 million jobs.

NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps Rear Adm. Nancy Hann will serve as NOAA’s deputy under secretary for operations, beginning August 2024. Hann will succeed Ben Friedman, who is retiring from the federal workforce after 30 years of service. Additionally, Rear Adm. Chad Cary’s nomination to replace Hann as Director of the NOAA Corps and NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations is currently being considered by the Senate.