Highways Bettering the Economy and Environment Act of 2011

Floor Speech

* Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Highways Bettering the Economy and Environment Act with my Co-Chairman of the Congressional Pollinator Protection Caucus, Representative Tim Johnson. This bi-partisan bill provides much-needed aid for the birds, bats, bees and butterflies that pollinate our food.

* The Highways BEE Act seeks no new monies and involves a limited federal role. It has received widespread endorsement from a diverse group of scientists, researchers and members of the business and environmental communities including the National Audubon Society, Lafarge Construction, National Farmers Union, the Isaac Walton League, American Farmland Trust, Waste Management, and Defenders of Wildlife.

* This bill provides for existing authorities and funding sources to incorporate integrated vegetation management practices along America's highways, which includes things like reduced mowing and replacing invasive plant species with native forbs and grasses. This kind of roadside vegetation management provides much-needed habitat for pollinators and other small nesting animals.

* The Association of American State Highway and Transportation Officials Vegetation Management Guidelines released in March advances integrated vegetation management principles and recommendations consistent with the objectives of this legislation. A number of states, including Minnesota, are already doing this and reporting maintenance cost savings of 20 to 25 percent from reduced mowing alone.

* Mr. Speaker, there are around 17 million acres of land where significant reductions in mowing and maintenance can reduce costs for cash-strapped states. The millions of acres of agriculture and wildlife ecosystems adjacent to these roadways will benefit from the increased pollinator habitat resulting from integrated vegetation management practices.

* To understand how worried we should be about declining pollinator populations, consider that rising global food prices are the primary topic of discussion at the G-20 meetings in Paris right now. This is the first time that agriculture has had the top spot at a meeting and is indicative of how serious the issue is. Food prices have already led to global riots overseas and a declining pollinator population will only make the situation worse. Seventy-five percent of all flowering plant species rely on creatures like birds, bats, bees and butterflies for fertilization. One out of every three bites of food that we eat, as well as $20 billion of products in the United States alone, derive from pollinators.

* If we don't solve these problems soon, we won't have any bees. Without bees, we won't have any food. The benefit to cost balance in the case of this bill, Mr. Speaker, is an easy choice.

Source