Digital Coast Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BISHOP of Utah. The gentlewoman is someone on our committee who clearly understands the significance of mapping, especially for storm preparations and flood management and everything else.

I wish to congratulate Miss Gonzalez-Colon because she is the only one of us on the floor who just recently was returned here for a 4-year term.

Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Bishop for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 1069. This legislation authorizes NOAA's Digital Coast Program and ensures coastal communities have up-to-date data and tools to prepare for storms, manage floods, restore shorelines, and plan for long-term coastal resilience.

NOAA's Digital Coast Program has been extremely valuable for jurisdictions like Puerto Rico, where we have 799 miles of coastline and 62 percent of our population lives in coastal municipalities. For instance, after Hurricane Maria devastated the island with powerful storm surge and flash floods, Digital Coast staffers updated their Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper to incorporate high-resolution flood maps for the territory. They also held training sessions on flood mapping and resilient infrastructure, allowing officials to visualize storm surge, high tide flooding, sea level rise, and tsunami scenarios in order to increase our preparedness for such events.

This bill would build upon this work, authorizing NOAA to continue providing comprehensive mapping information that allows planners and coastal managers across the Nation to make accurate decisions and smart investments. This bill will also require NOAA to focus additional data collection efforts on underserved coastal areas.

As Puerto Rico's sole representative in Congress, I know firsthand the importance of having reliable coastal data to help respond to emergencies, to build resilience, and manage water resources. Therefore, I strongly urge my colleagues to support S. 1069.

The Digital Coast Act will enhance Federal, State, Tribal, and local authorities' decisionmaking regarding coastal resiliency, mapping, and infrastructure planning. It is one of these good measures that we need to support. I truly support it. It deals with the entire coast of the Nation. It deals with the coasts in other areas that are not yet part of the 50 States--yet--and it deals with the Great Salt Lake. I am sorry, it deals with the Great Lakes.

What I am saying is the only way you could improve this stupid thing is if you added the Great Salt Lake into it as well. But as part of the Intermountain West, I'm used to being ignored by the rest of Congress as they go merrily on their way, not realizing the kind of value that we have in the Intermountain West.

So despite that flaw in this particular piece of legislation, I support it wholeheartedly and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this particular piece.

Mr. Speaker, I inquire of the gentleman from California if he has any further speakers.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source