Department Of The Interior, Environment, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaTOURETTE. Reclaiming my time, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

To accomplish the ambitious goals of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a variety of approaches and strategies will be required. Among these is the targeted conservation of key coastal natural resource lands. Along the shores of the Great Lakes and elsewhere across the Nation, a number of these coastal landscapes are being protected through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program, or CELCP. With the program's 50 percent matching requirement and the engagement of coastal communities and States, the program leverages Federal investment in remarkable ways. In my own State of Ohio, CELCP has been instrumental in securing key properties and conserving ecological resources at the Mentor Marsh and along East Sandusky Bay. I understand that the chairman's own involvement in the program has helped to conserve vital coastal resources along the Puget Sound.

Under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, $15 million would be available to NOAA for habitat restoration and protection. I understand that an underlying expectation for these funds is that at least half of them would be expended through CELCP on land conservation priorities that contribute to the goals of the initiative and these funds would supplement rather than replace CELCP funds provided in other legislation for priorities in the Great Lakes region. Is this correct?

I yield to the gentleman.

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