During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) spoke about the Trump Administration's cuts to NOAA.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Madam Chair, you know, I heard some of our witnesses say
00:02that business requires certainty and predictability.
00:06We've gotten anything but that in the last 64 days with tariffs on and off, mass firings,
00:13deportations, chaos, division, all slowly wrecking our economy.
00:19Unemployment is rising, growth is slowing, the stock market is dropping,
00:22and even President Trump admitted that we could be headed for a recession.
00:26So I'm not sure how many people realize this,
00:29but natural resources are absolutely critical for Florida's economy.
00:33We have a huge tourism, ecotourism industry, huge fisheries, national parks,
00:38all this being utilized to help out.
00:41And I know many of your constituents get to enjoy coming to Florida, and we welcome them.
00:46It's America's playground, which is why President Trump's cuts to the National Oceanic
00:52and Atmospheric Administration, otherwise known as NOAA, is hitting us very hard.
00:56A 10% cut in personnel, over 1,000 employees fired,
01:01another 1,000 from the national parks, by the way.
01:03Our state gets devastated by hurricanes.
01:08This is going to affect everything from preparedness for floods,
01:12to hurricanes, to other natural disasters, our readiness, our response.
01:18And I could tell you, after a hurricane hits, it takes sometimes weeks to months for folks
01:24to be able to recover, sometimes years.
01:26It affects lives and livelihoods.
01:29Central Florida farmers are still recovering from Hurricanes Helene and Milton,
01:34along with businesses along the Gulf of Mexico, like in St. Pete, where you have a lot
01:40of these small mom-and-pop hotels that are still getting sand out of their first floors
01:45and trying to recover and rebuild.
01:48Even grants to improve weather forecasts have been cut, which also hurts, again, readiness,
01:54response, the more time we have, the better we can protect small businesses across Florida.
02:01Also, fisheries are absolutely critical for our state, both recreational and commercial.
02:08Everybody is pretty familiar with Grouper or Red Snapper,
02:11both favorites of mine and many others.
02:15NOAA helps manage fisheries.
02:17NOAA helps navigation information for ships and marine sanctuaries.
02:22Huge for fishing, huge for tourism in Florida.
02:26And so, when you have cuts ordered without guidance on where to cut,
02:31nothing's efficient about that.
02:32Most of these folks are probationary employees.
02:34The only thing they have going for them, why they got selected,
02:37is because they've been there for three years or less.
02:40Some of them could be management, they could be experts,
02:42or they could be the new guy on the block.
02:44And so, you literally, at random, by how they came in, cut these folks,
02:51and then it makes it even less efficient than it was before.
02:55This is the Committee of Jurisdiction.
02:57We should be having hearings on this.
02:58I don't see anybody from NOAA here, from the national parks.
03:01I, in fact, haven't seen anybody yet invited from those agencies.
03:05And this is going to affect our biggest industries in Florida.
03:08Especially tourism.
03:13You know, Dr. Khariva, thank you for being here.
03:20Environmental tourism, huge in Florida.
03:23I know how many people go to our beaches.
03:24They go out on boats and recreational fishing.
03:27They go to see the manatees, get to enjoy the Everglades and so many other areas
03:33like the Kissimmee Channel Lakes in my district.
03:35How are these NOAA cuts affecting tourism, both in your area and across the nation?
03:42Well, in our area, NOAA is very much involved in recovering the kelp ecosystem,
03:49which is our productive, the West Coast productive ecosystem.
03:53And these cuts will hurt the efforts to restore kelp.
03:57And kelp is incredibly economically valuable.
04:00It seems like it's just a plant.
04:01But per acre of kelp generates, in fisheries income alone, just in fisheries income alone,
04:09between $5,000 and $20,000 per acre each year if you have an intact kelp.
04:15And NOAA is the science agency and a support agency that's involved
04:19in rebuilding that whole kelp ecosystem, which is everything from otters to abalone and so on.
04:25And people spend a lot of money to be able to recreational fish or get
04:29to see those otters or scuba dive.
04:31What have you been seeing lately as a result of this?
04:33Well, I mean, even that, I mean, just think about the fact that a lot of talk
04:37about the Endangered Species Act.
04:39We recovered whales.
04:40And now just in California alone, it's a $20 million a year industry
04:44to just go out whale watching.
04:46That's courtesy of the Endangered Species Act to be able and go out whale watching.
04:50So it's going to be really important to the whole coastal economy to restore this kelp.
04:57And we welcome all your constituents out to Florida to enjoy.
05:00And in a bipartisan fashion, I know Congressman Webster's on this committee,
05:05this is absolutely critical that we protect NOAA and we protect both our fisheries and tourism.
05:10It's huge business in our state.
05:12And I yield back.