Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I am really concerned about the continuing resolution we passed yesterday with over $1 billion in cuts to one of the most important Federal agencies, NOAA. That's right, our weather and natural disaster folks. When some people think of NOAA, they think of an agency that only impacts the coastal States, so cuts to this agency wouldn't impact them or their families. But it's important to know that every time we get the day's weather so we can prepare and make sure we are warm or dry, we use NOAA technology. Every time we get alerts about tornadoes or earthquakes, it's NOAA's technology. In the wake of the tsunami that devastated Japan, the House yesterday passed a measure that would hamper our own ability to detect tsunamis. Currently, seven of the 39 Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis, DART, stations are nonoperational due to broken moorings and equipment failures. And the cuts that we made yesterday put us in jeopardy--that's right--in the Pacific Ocean, in the Atlantic, and in the gulf. We are all in jeopardy because of those cuts yesterday, and NOAA won't have an opportunity to repair them and to restore them, degrading the quality of our warnings. Mr. Speaker, this is senseless, and it's time for the American people to speak up against this senseless policy. ____________________”