Bill Flores: “I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for his remarks, but this program is designed and was changed beginning with the…”

“I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for his remarks, but this program is designed and was changed beginning with the Obama administration to fund Executive Order 13547. If you go to the NOAA budget request, it says, ``The Regional Ocean Partnership grants program will establish a competitive grant program to support regional ocean partnerships. The program will help support the development and implementation of priority actions identified in plans of regional ocean partnerships. Support will include the development of comprehensive Coastal and Marine Spatial Plans,'' i.e., Executive Order 13547. So, yes, this program was around before during the Bush administration, but it has changed under the Obama administration, and now they're using this Sandy relief as a methodology to fund this program which, again, was never authorized directly by Congress. There were two rounds of grant requests that were granted by NOAA in 2012. Only one went to a State, and that was to the State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, and the Office of Planning. Here are the NGOs and outside groups that did get money from this, though: The Nature Conservancy, the Smith River National Recreation Area, the University of Hawaii, the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, and others. But not to States. Only one went to a State and that was to the State of Hawaii.…”