Congress is hard at work on updates to our 50-year-old Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). On June 16th, the House Natural Resources Water Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee held a hearing on the bipartisan Resilient Coasts and Estuaries Act introduced by Representative Mike Levin (CA) and Brian Mast (FL). NERRA submitted a letter of support for the bill because it not only seeks to codify NERRS national programs, it also calls for additional funding for the NERRS and land conservation.

A big NERRA thank you to the the following house members currently supporting it: Representatives Maria Salazar (FL), Katie Porter (CA), Suzanne Bonamici (OR), Jeniffer Gonzalez-Colon (PR), Earl Blumenauer (OR), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Jared Huffman (CA), Kaialiʻi Kahele (HI), and Jimmy Panetta (CA). 

With an eye to educating members of Congress about what your Reserve and the System do for your community, please consider how you can promote your work. Keep your congressional members up-to-date on how your Reserve matters to the many people you reach, and help them understand that we need to update the CZMA to protect the NERRS and our programs—it’s essential. 

On June 22, the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Senate, and Other Agencies Subcommittee marked up the budget that includes NERRS funding. On June 29th, the full Appropriations Committee will act on the bill. If you have not already, please reach back out to your members of Congress—or better still, ask your friends group to do it—and ask them to support NERRA’s request for the NERRS FY2023 budget. Supply them with this breakdown of how the $42.5 million request would be spent and NERRA’s response to the President’s budget.