Congressman Panetta Amendment Included in House-Passed Bill to Protect Coastal Communities

WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, December 10, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-20) voted for the Coastal and Great Lakes Communities Enhancement Act, H.R. 729, a package of ten bipartisan bills that aid coastal ecosystems and economies, improve ocean monitoring and research, and offer coastal managers tools to protect coastal communities most vulnerable to climate impacts. Congressman Panetta successfully incorporated a bipartisan amendment to encourage collaborations and partnerships between institutions of higher education and federal agencies to expand and improve the data sets used for coastal management.
"This bill helps communities like mine on the central coast of California prepare for and respond to climate change, and uses scientific data to address coastal and ocean management. Importantly, this bill establishes NOAA’s Digital Coast Program, a web-based collection of, tools, training resources, and data that inform coastal managers making climate-related decisions," said Congressman Panetta. "My amendment expands that data set, by encouraging collaborations and partnerships between institutions of higher education and federal agencies. My district on the Central Coast is home to multiple coastal colleges and universities pursuing cutting-edge research focused on coastal resilience. At the same time, there are federal agencies like NOAA are leading innovative work on this very same topic. My amendment will ensure that there is communication, coordination, and collaboration between academic scholars and policymakers when it comes to digital data focused on coastal management issues. This will not only improve the relevance and applicability of our nation’s efforts to protect coastal communities, but help our nation gather the evidence it needs and continue to be the leader it needs to be when it comes to the mitigation and adaptation in dealing with climate change."
H.R. 729 creates programs to support Tribal, state and local community projects that protect, restore and preserve coastal zones and working waterfronts; helps communities prepare for and respond to climate change; and uses data to address coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes management. The bill protects American commercial and recreational fisheries and the communities that depend on them by authorizing programs that preserve fish habitats and conduct research on Great Lakes fisheries management. The bill also strengthens our marine and coastal science and policy workforce by reauthorizing and updating the National Sea Great College Program.

 A list of bills included in the package and amendments adopted to H.R. 729 is available at https://bit.ly/2LIsLQy and a fact sheet is available at https://bit.ly/38nlH5r.