John Sarbanes: “The task, the charge, the responsibility of the Commission to kind of keep its eyes open as these imports are coming in”

Without the strong and continued investment the EPA has requested for the Chesapeake Bay Program in fiscal year 2024, the risk is we could jeopardize decades of work in collaboration towards the Bay's restoration.

This bill takes important steps to support the ongoing restoration of the Chesapeake Bay by reauthorizing NOAA's Chesapeake Bay Office and authorizing the agency's long-running Bay Watershed Education and Training, or B-WET Grant program.

But these are dramatic changes that can bring us to a new place and, I think, have given many people a sense of hope instead of despair in the face of what we are seeing with a warming planet.

The health of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed can only continue to improve through robust Federal, state, and local partnerships.