Chuck Schumer Demands DHS Reinstate Funding For Weather Detection Program In Wake Of Texas Floods

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to reinstate funding for the EMPOWER Program at the University of Albany.

Transcript

00:00Natural disasters. Well, we continue to pray and mourn for everyone affected by

00:07the flooding in Texas. I still can't get the picture of those beautiful little

00:12girls, I believe it was 27 of them, all gone in the flood. And I think about

00:18their parents mourning for them, cut short, beautiful young

00:24lives cut short. The tragedy is a reminder that we all have a

00:28responsibility as public servants to secure every resource possible to

00:33protect our communities from the threats of Mother Nature, which we all know are

00:38growing every year. You don't have to be a scientist, you don't have to be someone

00:43who studies the weather every day, to know that it has changed rapidly. And it's

00:50obvious that global warming, more carbon in our atmosphere, is the main cause. Now we

00:58need, so we need all the help we can get against natural disasters. We need to

01:04protect ourselves from the threats of Mother Nature growing, which are growing

01:10rapidly with increasing frequency. This is especially true in my home state of New

01:16York, which has seen its own share of natural disasters, including a tornado

01:20earlier this week in Ontario County. In New York we never used to have any

01:25tornadoes this year, they counted, or last year they counted 40. So I am alarmed that

01:31the Department of Homeland Security has canceled a three million dollar grant to

01:36the University at Albany's Mesonet program. The Empower program at the

01:41University of Albany is essential to help all New Yorkers stay safe, whether you

01:47live in New York City, in the suburbs, or upstate. It's essential for all New

01:53Yorkers who need to be protected against extreme weather like flooding, who need the

02:01warning, which obviously didn't occur in Texas, that bad, bad, dangerous weather is

02:10coming. The Mesonet program takes data from 127 different weather stations from

02:17Western New York to Staten Island to provide better weather models using

02:22real-time observations. It helps local emergency managers make better informed

02:27decisions and quicker decisions to protect lives and property. It isn't just

02:33utterly amazing that right after the Texas flood that the Department of Homeland

02:39Security is thinking of eliminating this program, which should be go across the

02:43whole country. It's one of the most advanced weather detection programs we

02:47have, and it looks at the atmosphere in various layers. It quickly combines

02:53information from various Mesonet stations and gets to the local authorities more

02:59quickly and more accurately the dangers that might occur from extreme weather. So

03:05today I am calling on Secretary Noem and the Department of Homeland Security to

03:11reinstate fund, to reinstate funding for the Empower program immediately. It makes no

03:18sense, no sense at all, to, to deprive states like New York of resources when we

03:24need to stay fully prepared against natural disasters and severe weather. And make no

03:29mistake, this cut to this program, which is based in Albany, will reverberate from one

03:35end of my state to the other. It will reverberate in places like Staten Island, where the College

03:41of Staten Island has a Mesonet facility used, that is used by the Empower program. If this funding

03:48is canceled, it puts pressure at the state level to make it up. And that means fewer resources to alert

03:54local officials when dangerous and fast storms develop. Canceling this funding is

04:00just completely wrongheaded. It is ill-informed. You know, it's typical of this

04:05administration, they just want to cut, cut, cut, without even realizing the

04:08consequences. And the way, and in the wake of the horrible tragedy in Texas, to do

04:14this now seems all the more, not only inappropriate, but galling and wrongheaded.

04:19People in New York will be at greater risk to unexpected storms. Canceling this funding is

04:28ill-informed. It's also dangerous. I urge Secretary Noem to reverse course immediately. I yield the

04:36floor and note the absence of a comment.

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