During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke about the economic and ecological importance of the Chesapeake Bay system.
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00:00Senator. Welcome, Mr. Secretary. I do want to associate myself with the comments that
00:05Senator Merkley and Murray have made expressing concerns about the budget or the lack of budget
00:11to date when it comes to the spend plan for fiscal year 25. You and I have never met. You
00:18come from the beautiful state, North Dakota. I want to tell you a little bit about my state
00:23of Maryland and the very important role the Department of Interior plays in the state
00:29of Maryland, and seek your assurances on a couple things. So one of the world's natural
00:36treasures and one of our country's national treasures is the Chesapeake Bay. And we need
00:43to make sure we preserve the bay and maintain a healthy bay, not just because it's a natural
00:48wonder, but because big parts of the Maryland economy depend on a healthy bay. We have the
00:55watermen who make their livelihood off the bounty of the bay. We have a tourism industry that
01:00depends on a healthy bay, sports water, sports fishermen, as well as the boating industry,
01:09and a whole economic ecosystem around a healthy bay. And so the challenge, of course, is how
01:14to make it, how to protect it, right? Because the bay watershed encompasses six states and
01:21the District of Columbia. You can put something in a stream in parts of New York State, and
01:26they end up in the Chesapeake Bay. It has a 14 to 1 land to water ratio, which is the largest
01:34such ratio of any coastal water body in the world. So you can see that what happens on the land
01:42has a direct impact on the health of the Chesapeake Bay. And the Department of Interior has a number
01:49of very important programs in place to help protect the bay, its health, and the economy,
01:55the health of the economy. One is the WILDS grant program. This is a program that has been bipartisan
02:01in origin. Senator Shelley Moore Capito and I launched it. It helps restore and protect fish and wildlife
02:11habitat from brook trout in West Virginia, to ruffed grouse in Pennsylvania forests, to oysters in the
02:19Chesapeake Bay. Another very important DOI program is the U.S. Geological Survey. It provides very important
02:30science that all of the states use to help develop their strategies to protect the health of the bay and guide
02:40the restoration efforts. We also have, in Maryland, a number of national wildlife refuges, seven altogether,
02:50that, number one, help provide critical habitat around the bay and prevent more pollution from running
03:00off the land into the bay. They also help provide outdoor opportunities for people who visit the state
03:07of Maryland and the bay. And then there's the National Park Service, which, through the Chesapeake
03:12Gateway's partnership, provides more public access to the bay. And then we have a number of important
03:19national heritage areas and the National Park Service that plays a very important role in our state,
03:25including Antietam National Battlefield, including the Harriet Tubman National Underground Railroad Historic Park,
03:32including Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. So that's a quick overview of all of the
03:41important interaction investments the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior, has with the
03:46state of Maryland. And so my question to you, Mr. Secretary, is will you work with me, the committee,
03:53the Maryland delegation, to, number one, maintain that strong partnership, but also to maintain the
04:00resources that are necessary to support that partnership? Yes, absolutely, Senator. I appreciate
04:05that. And the reason I ask is, as we look at the skinny budget, a number of the categories that are
04:13deeply cut would impact almost all of the programs that I just mentioned, right? I mentioned the WILD
04:21program, for example. If you look at the category of funding and the cuts there, they're very significant.
04:27If you look at the National Geological Survey cuts that are being proposed, it appears, although it's hard
04:35to determine, that the entire program that supports that scientific work might be wiped out. I don't
04:42know for sure, but this is why we're expressing so many concerns, because this partnership has been
04:50very important to our state of Maryland, to the Chesapeake Bay. And so I appreciate, Mr. Secretary,
04:56your assurances, both in terms of working together and the resources to match that effort. And I look
05:02forward to continuing our conversation. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,
05:08Senator Van Hollen. Mr. Secretary, thanks for being here.