Save Our Seas Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding. I also thank Chairman DeFazio for his ongoing efforts to help us bring this important bill to the floor today.

As the co-chair of the House Oceans Caucus, I rise in strong support of Save Our Seas 2.0, a bill to clean up marine debris.

Every minute, the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic is dumped into our ocean. According to the United Nations, that is more than 8 million tons a year. Plastic bottles, straws, grocery bags, cigarette butts, fishing gear, and abandoned vessels litter the ocean.

After the tsunami hit the coast of Japan in 2011, large materials, like docks and boats that carried invasive species, ended up on the shores of northwest Oregon.

Tiny pieces of plastic also make their way into marine life, blocking digestive tracts, altering growth, and in some cases killing marine mammals and fisheries.

We still don't know how long it takes for plastic to completely biodegrade. Estimates range from 450 years to never. A recent study from the Pew Charitable Trusts found that without action, by 2040, the annual flow of plastic into the ocean could nearly triple to 29 million metric tons.

Let me be clear: We need to fundamentally change our reliance on plastics. Plastics pollute our ocean and exacerbate the climate crisis. The fossil fuel and plastics industries are deeply connected, and plastics contribute a significant share of industrial emissions in the United States.

A problem this pervasive, a global problem of this magnitude, cannot be solved with a single bill. We cannot limit our action to removing existing plastic from the ocean, and we can also not recycle our way out of plastic waste that ends up on our shores.

We need comprehensive action, but today we have the opportunity to build on our foundation, a bipartisan, bicameral effort to strengthen the NOAA Marine Debris Program.

Save Our Seas 2.0 will improve the domestic response to marine debris by creating a Marine Debris Foundation to support NOAA's work, advance the removal and prevention of plastic waste, and establish a pilot program to provide incentives for the proper disposal of marine debris collected at sea.

The bill will incentivize international engagement to address marine debris by raising awareness about the sources of plastic waste and the effects of mismanaged waste and assess the potential for a new international agreement to address marine debris.

Save Our Seas 2.0 will strengthen domestic infrastructure to prevent the creation of new marine debris by establishing grant programs to assist States and localities in improving local waste management systems and review opportunities to minimize the production of new plastic waste.

The ocean is resilient, and we can help it heal, but we cannot afford to wait. We have significant work ahead to prevent marine debris and Save Our Seas 2.0 continues to build on our bipartisan foundation to protect the ocean.

Mr. Speaker, I want to close by thanking my colleague and co-chair of the House Oceans Caucus, Representative Don Young from Alaska, for his partnership on this bill, and to our Senate colleagues, Senator Dan Sullivan and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill to strengthen the Federal response to marine debris.

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