Political Quotes

“Again, these en bloc amendments are critical additions and positive additions to a critical bill. These amendments address major issues related to the harmful impacts of climate change and other man-made effects on our oceans, our coastlines, and our lakes. For example, they single out the destruction that is being wrought, as we speak, on our coral reefs throughout our entire country, our coral reefs throughout the Gulf Coast, throughout Florida, and throughout the West Coast, in Hawaii and beyond: the acidification that has led to bleaching of these coral reefs. And as we all know, or at least I hope we all know, as go the coral reefs, so go our oceans. These amendments would strengthen Federal programs that address the health of our coral reefs. These amendments go to harmful algal blooms, which are a problem throughout our country, as well. What can we and should we do about it as a Federal coordinated effort? Of course, we should do something about that. These amendments would strengthen this bill. These amendments would forward a Federal-State partnership, a community partnership, to address another harmful consequence which is killing our oceans. These amendments would address coastal resiliency. How do we prevent our coastlines from eroding? In my own home State of Hawaii, we have seen significant erosion. And that is true of all of the other coasts: significant increases in sea level over a very, very recent period of time that has caused major erosion.…”