Jackie Speier: “I thank my friend and colleague from California, the chair, for the opportunity to speak on behalf of this amendment.…”

“I thank my friend and colleague from California, the chair, for the opportunity to speak on behalf of this amendment. This would increase the funding for the San Francisco Bay restoration from $25 million to $30 million, a small sum in the scheme of things but huge in terms of its impact. Over the last 200 years, 90 percent of the San Francisco Bay wetlands have disappeared. If we don't act now, the damage will be irreversible by 2030. The San Francisco Bay estuary is the largest estuary west of the Mississippi, yet it has been shortchanged in terms of resources. Between 2008 and 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency invested only $45 million in the San Francisco Bay. Conversely, Puget Sound received $260 million and Chesapeake Bay $490 million. As you can see, it has been shortchanged. The funding wouldn't just benefit San Francisco. The bay supports 4 million jobs, supplying drinking water for 25 million people, and provides irrigation for about one-half of the Nation's fruit and vegetable production. It is critical to all of us. We must invest now to save this ecological treasure.”