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Floor Speech
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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I do not want to keep the distinguished Senator from Maine on the floor any longer than we have to, so I am going to move rapidly to the unanimous consent motion.
But I do want to tell the Senator that I am actually rather sympathetic to her concerns. In Rhode Island, we have had issues regarding the black sea bass, which NOAA scientists have known for more than a decade were moving up into our waters, yet the fisheries regulation and the allotments have not moved accordingly. We have problems with evanescent species like butterfish and loligo squid that replicate more rapidly than the regulatory regime can keep up, so the information is really nonsense. And we have an urgent need to enhance electronic monitoring on our boats so that human monitors don't have to be taken out on the boat.
Yes, we have frustrations with NOAA about its pace in a lot of these areas, but I simply think that an understaffed NOAA is not a solution to those problems.
768, Jainey Kumar Bavishi, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record.
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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, let me just say I hope we can find a way to move forward. Ms. Bavishi is needed to fill a very important position. Those of us in coastal States know the problem with Oceans and Atmosphere is profound. Perhaps my favorite new figure is called the zettajoule, the joule being the unit of heat energy by which we measure energy. The zettajoule is a joule with 21 zeros. It is a very, very big number. It is twice the complete full energy production and use by human species on the planet. All of our energy, our cars, our trucks, our homes, our factories--everything is half a zettajoule. For the price of that, we add 14 zettajoules of heat into the ocean every single year--every single year. It is the equivalent of three or four Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs being set off in the ocean every second and the ocean having to absorb that heat energy.
As the Senator from Maine knows, the Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest heating bodies of water on the planet, and she sees it as her fisheries and her lobster fisheries, in particular, move northward.
I am eager to find a way to make sure that Bavishi can get in place. She is a leading climate expert who worked in the New York Mayor's Office of Climate Resiliency and, before that, in the CEQ at the White House.
I respect the concerns that the Senator from Maine has indicated. As I said, I have my own. I just have a different view as to whether stopping the Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Administration position from being filled is conducive to getting those concerns met.
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