Chris Van Hollen Underscores Importance Of Chesapeake Bay Preservation To Interior Secretary Burgum

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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.

Transcript

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.

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