TESTIMONY OF DR. D. JAMES BAKER
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 24, 1999
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Subcommittee, for this opportunity to testify on the President's FY 2000 Budget Request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Before I begin, let me state that because of investments championed by this Subcommittee, NOAA is a world leader in weather and climate research and forecasts, environmental monitoring and research, fisheries management, resource protection, and sustainable use of the coast. This proposed budget is a good budget for NOAA; this is a good budget for the Department of Commerce; this is a good budget for America!
This budget demonstrates our commitment to meeting our responsibilities
for investing in and maintaining our infrastructure. The challenge
of investing strategically in the Nation's future requires continuing
investments in NOAA's infrastructure, including investments in
our people. The FY 2000 budget request includes essential "down
payments" to meet these investment needs. Most notably,
the budget request:
--includes funding to address our data acquisition needs by providing
for the first of four new Fisheries Research Vessels (FRVs), while
at the same time increasing the number of days-at-sea by 245 for
University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) ship
time for critical data collection needs for the Global Ocean Ecosystem
Dynamics (GLOBEC) and Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Alagal
Bloom (ECOHAB) programs.
--provides funding to maintain our supercomputing capacity at
the NWS Central Computing Facility in Suitland, Maryland, and
the Forecast Systems Lab (FSL) in Boulder, Colorado, while acquiring
a massively parallel, scalable computer to be located at OAR's
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab (GFDL), in Princeton, New Jersey.
--provides recurring lease and/or operations costs at a number
of NOAA facilities coming on-line in FY 1999 and FY 2000, including
the David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder, Colorado. At the
same time funds are requested to complete the planning and design
of a new state-of-the-art NMFS research facility near Juneau,
Alaska.
--provides adjustments-to-base for pay related and inflationary
cost increases to the National Weather Service, as well as for
the FY 2000 pay raise for the remaining Line Offices.
--includes funds to begin to replace outdated climate/weather
observing equipment in order to maintain continuity of core data
and services and provides funds for continuing technology infusion
for systems developed under the Weather Service Modernization;
--reflects the Administration's intent to restructure and maintain
the NOAA Corps and includes payments of retirement benefits for
Commissioned Officers as mandatory funding;
--as part of a Commerce-wide capacity building effort, includes
$1.0 million to establish educational training relationships through
a joint partnership with a consortium of Historically Black Colleges
and Universities (HBCU). These efforts would not only result in
the education of new marine, atmospheric and environmental scientists,
but would also assist many coastal communities in the development
of new business and environmental engineering alternatives to
support sustainable economic development; and,
--provides funds to accelerate the implementation of the Commerce
Administrative Management System (CAMS), which is critical to
meeting NOAA's financial management requirements.
We, at NOAA, know that performance is what counts! Therefore,
our FY 2000 budget includes measures that track results to the
level of investment.
NOAA's FY 2000 request is for $2.6 billion in total budget authority which includes $2.5 billion in discretionary budget authority. This request collectively represents a 12.9% increase over the total budget authority appropriated for FY 1999.
The request is predicated on the need to ensure the continued delivery of essential science, technology, and services to the Nation. The President's Budget Request also allows NOAA to perform an essential role in a number of Departmental, interagency, and Presidential initiatives, including, the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative, the Climate in the 21st Century Initiative, Ocean 2000 Initiatives and building the capacity of the Nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Let me take a moment to say a few words about some of these important activities.
Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative (NDRI)
Natural hazards related to severe weather (hurricanes, tornadoes,
winter storms, droughts, and floods) or geophysical activity (volcanoes,
geomagnetic storms, earthquakes, and tsunamis) threaten lives,
property, and the stability of local and regional economies throughout
the United States.
In FY 2000, NOAA requests a net increase of $42.1 million for the Natural Disaster Reduction Initiative (NDRI) to implement a second phase of the Department's multi-agency strategy, which includes NOAA, EDA ad NIST, to reduce and mitigate against the impacts of extreme natural events. The strategy calls for an end-to-end approach to natural disaster mitigation, from research to improve prediction and understanding of extreme events, to advances in developing response and recovery plans, to assessment of vulnerabilities of communities and infrastructure, and providing information, technology, and training to reduce vulnerability before and after natural disasters.
The modernization of the Weather Service represents a significant
commitment by the Administration. The modernization effort has
made considerable progress in providing more accurate and timely
weather warnings and forecasts services. In order to ensure
that these improvements are sustained, the FY 2000 Budget includes:
--an adjustment to base of $20.0 million in pay-related and inflationary
cost increases, and $12.3 million in programmatic changes to the
National Weather Service to ensure the continuation of quality
accurate and timely weather warnings and forecasts services to
the public.
--$25.8 million to pay for a full year of operation and maintenance
support for the entire NWS AWIPS network.
--$2.7 million to support AWIPS operations and WFO Facilities
Construction as the result of mitigation actions per the Secretary's
Report Team recommendations on the adequacy of NEXRAD Coverage
and Degradation of Weather Services under National Weather Service
Modernization for: Caribou, Maine, and Key West, Florida; and
continue current operations at Erie, Pennsylvania, and Williston,
North Dakota. An additional $1.0 million for mitigation activities
is included in the NWS' Operations and Research request.
--$3.7 million for other NWS systems activities such as the product
improvement initiative and acquisition closeout activities for
ASOS and NEXRAD, and to provide commercial aircraft observations
(ACARS) for operational use in numerical weather prediction models.
--$3.7 million for Weather Forecast Office Construction and Maintenance
activities such as: basic facility service contracts and the
implementation of corrective and preventive maintenance actions
at selected sites across the country; in addition to continue
facility retrofit projects necessary to meet current usage requirements
as well as safety and fire code regulations.
The request includes an increase of $30.1 million for NOAA's share
of the NPOESS program, for a total request of $80.1 million in
FY 2000. In FY 2000, the NPOESS program will complete Phase I
design and development of five key sensors and initiate Phase
II production of these sensors. This program will be jointly
and equally funded by NOAA and DOD.
The request also includes an increase of $6.8 million for GOES N-Q spacecraft acquisition (a total program of $189.5 million for FY 2000), including development funds for advanced instruments to be ready for the GOES-Q satellite, and the upgrading and replacement of aging ground systems.
The FY 2000 Request also provides increases for maintaining
the operational support for the on-orbit satellites and expanding
the use of satellite data.
--$1.7 million will fund Satellite Operational Control Center
(SOCC) non-discretionary labor and non-labor cost increases in
order to avoid risking to the health and safety of the current
operational satellites. This increase will also maintain adequate
operational data processing capacity and engineering support for
satellites data streams; and,
--$2.0 million will be used to commence establishment of the integrated Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN) to improve all phases of disaster management. This will be a public/private partnership to develop an information system for those who manage and those who are affected by disasters.
The FY 2000 budget also includes funding for other projects
that will enhance observation and prediction capabilities, such
as:
--$6.4 million to continue the replacement and modernization of
the obsolete upper air radiosonde network that provides critical
upper air observations which are the principal data source for
all weather forecasts. Modern radiosondes and ground receiving
equipment will permit more efficient use of radio frequency spectrum
and ensure reliable and consistent upper air data acquisition.
--$2.2 million to initiate the national implementation of the
Advanced Hydrologic Prediction System (AHPS), an integrated real-time
modeling and data management/analysis system for flood forecasts,
in the upper Mississippi, including the Red River of the North,
and Ohio River Basin. AHPS will expand and improve forecasts of
river levels from days to several months in advance of the event.
_ $4.3 million will be used for the GEOSTORM satellite, the follow-on
to the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. This multi-agency
program leverages the interests and requirements of NOAA, NASA,
and the Air Force to increase the lead time of warnings currently
provided to power companies and other industries vulnerable to
solar storms. These industries have told us to make GEOSTORM our
number one priority as they now depend on solar wind warning products
to trigger preventative measures that help avert wide spread power
blackouts and satellite failures. The satellite will be operated
by NASA.
_ $0.4 million will be used to provide for a second flight crew
for NOAA=s G-IV high altitude jet to meet the operational requirement
of 24-hour storm surveillance. This funding will allow the jet
to be flown on high priority back-to-back missions (12-hour intervals)
during land-falling hurricanes. It will also permit storm tracking
for long duration hurricanes when crew rest limitations may ground
the aircraft.
--Finally, an increase of $1.0 million is requested to expand work with coastal states and communities to develop coastal risk atlases and provide new remote sensing data in a more timely and effective manner. This will enable coastal communities to better prepare for and recover from natural disasters.
Climate in the 21st Century
Over the past two years, climate variability has emerged as one
of the most urgent, long-term strategic environmental security
issues facing the United States. The demand for scientifically
sound climate information by decision-makers and the public is
accelerating. For this reason, as the Department prepares to
enter the 21st Century, NOAA requests $19.1 million to meet the
Nation's climate service needs.
Underlying NOAA's ability to improve climate and weather models is maintaining state-of-the-art computer capabilities for world-class research. Included in this request is $5.7 million to acquire a massively parallel processing computer to improve models of climate variability and make better hurricane predictions.
Four key components of this initiative will provide critical
funding for NOAA's unique responsibility to obtain long-term observations
of the ocean and atmosphere and maintain national data archives.
They are:
--$1.2 million to restore and maintain operations at its baseline
atmospheric observatories in Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, and
Antarctica,
--$3.0 million to begin the modernization of the Cooperative Reference
Network and Raingauge Network ($1.5 million in NWS and $1.5 million
in NESDIS). At present, NOAA uses paper punch tapes which are
processed on a machine for which, there are no spare parts. It
is one of two such machines in the world; and,
--$0.9 million for the Data Centers to meet the increased demand
for near real-time products, data, and information related to
unusual and extreme weather, climate, and environmental events.
--$1.6 million to make long-term measurement of carbon dioxide
in the ocean, develop new ocean data assimilation methods, and
improve existing climate models.
Finally, NOAA is requesting $6.7 million for FY 2000 to launch new climate research projects. These will provide critical data to deepen our scientific understanding of, and thus our ability to predict climate variability and change. The successful forecast of the 1997-1998 El Nino and the subsequent La Nina events demonstrated dramatically that this kind of research can realize tangible benefits. A well-documented predictive understanding of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and other aspects of how our climate works is needed to determine the effects of climate anomalies on our daily lives, and is also needed to guide potential decisions regarding the role human influences play in climate change.
Beyond the waters of the tropical Pacific - where the ENSO signal is measured - are similar climate cycles that are as important to weather and climate patterns over North America as ENSO. NOAA plans to investigate and forecast these other key climate signals - the North Atlantic (or Arctic) Oscillation to learn the its effects on hurricane tracks and strengths in the Atlantic; and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and its impact on the Northwest salmon fishery. Learning more about these cycles will enable NOAA to improve both climate and weather forecasts and predict their impacts at regional levels. In turn, these predictions can be used by the affected populations to guide a range of decisions from emergency disaster management to agriculture and fisheries.
NOAA also plans to investigate the recently-identified "North American carbon sink", describing on a regional scale the characteristics that lead to the net uptake of atmospheric carbon by the land. This will be done by sampling the atmosphere from aircraft flying at low altitudes, measuring carbon dioxide levels to see how they vary according to vegetation type and other terrestrial characteristics. NOAA will conduct similar experiments on tropospheric (low-altitude) ozone, measuring variations in its concentration to determine the importance of this gas in regional warming scenarios relative to carbon dioxide.
Year of the Ocean
At the 1998 National Ocean Conference in Monterey, California,
the President launched a series of major initiatives to explore,
protect, and restore America's vital ocean resources. Highlighting
the important role the ocean plays in the daily lives of all Americans,
the Administration introduced measures to promote new scientific
insight into the oceans, sustain use of fisheries and other marine
resources, provide new opportunities for economic growth, and
protect fragile coastal communities and ecosystems, such as coral
reefs, from damage and environmental degradation.
NOAA's FY 2000 budget request ($78.1 million) for the Year
of the Ocean (YOTO) Initiative for those programs within the interest
of the Committee includes:
--$4.0 million to better understand the role of oceans in shaping
our weather and climate. Finer measurements of ocean data are
needed to track climate shifts, understand the interaction of
the oceans and atmosphere, and predict severe weather and the
regional impacts of global climate change. Funds will be used
to construct, deploy, and operate an array of 1000 profiling autonomous
floats for data collection in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
--a network of bio-physical moorings in the North Pacific Ocean
will provide data on key oceanographic indicators and give greater
insight into environmentally-induced shifts in the productivity
of commercially important fish stocks.
--$4.6 million for NOAA, in cooperation with industry, Federal,
and State partners, to develop and promote an environmentally
friendly and commercially viable domestic marine Aquaculture industry.
Of this amount, $3.6 million will support an OAR program on Mariculture.
--$2.0 million in order to work with the states, U.S. territories
and commonwealths, and local communities, to carry out important
research, monitoring, management, and mapping of the Nation's
coral reef system. These funds will be used to better understand
the state of this fragile ecosystem and help identify solutions
to protect this vital resource.
--$3.1 million to continue to unravel deep-sea mysteries, discover
new opportunities in the ocean, and better understand how to protect
marine resources. These funds are for OAR to expand their program
to map and explore U.S. ocean waters with advanced underwater
technology.
Over the past 20 years, harmful algal blooms, like recent pfisteria outbreaks, have affected nearly every coastal state and produced an estimated $1.0 billion in economic losses. The increasing frequency and magnitude of these problems suggests that significant action is required now to reduce the costs and symptoms of non-point source pollution, and improve the quality of U.S. coastal waters.
Within the President's $22 million NOAA request for the Clean Water Initiative, there is $2.8 million in the Coastal Ocean Science program for ECOHAB research to develop models to forecast and understand the impacts of harmful algal blooms.
CONCLUSION/WRAP-UP
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the FY 2000 Request builds on the
progress we have made with your assistance and support over the
past years. NOAA's environmental stewardship and assessment missions
are essential to securing our Nation's success in the 21st Century.
In meeting our mission, NOAA continues to focus the efforts of Government on what matters to the American people. Success in this changing world increasingly depends on partnerships with business and industry, universities, state and local governments, and international parties. NOAA continues to develop these partnerships to leverage resources and talent, and provide the means for meeting program requirements more effectively.
The FY 2000 budget is an investment for the 21st Century, a step toward a more viable, economically sound, and ecologically sustainable future... where environmental stewardship, assessment, and prediction serve as keystones to enhancing economic prosperity and quality of life, better protecting lives and property, and strengthening U.S. trade.
Thank you again for the opportunity to appear. I would be pleased to respond to any questions members of the Subcommittee may have.