Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriaciations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. FLORES. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

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Mr. FLORES. Madam Chairman, last year, the House adopted my bipartisan amendment that would prevent agencies under the FY 2013 CJS appropriations bill from imposing ocean zoning related to the Obama administration's National Ocean Policy under Executive Order 13547. Executive Order 13547 was signed in 2010 and requires that various bureaucracies essentially zone the ocean and the sources thereof. This essentially means that a drop of rain that falls on your house could be subject to this overreaching policy because that precipitation will ultimately wind up in the ocean.

The Department of Energy is a part of the National Ocean Council established under this executive order that has been tasked to zone the oceans. Concerns have been raised by many groups that the National Ocean Policy will restrict ocean and inland activities. It is also worrisome that the administration has not made any requests for funds for this effort, nor has Congress ever appropriated money for this purpose. We have had hearings on this in the Natural Resources Committee, and no agency has told us from what source they're getting the funding for this initiative. So where is the money coming from? Are they raiding existing accounts and diverting already scarce dollars from existing statutory responsibilities?

On this chart you can see the executive order creates a huge new bureaucracy at a time when we're trying to make the government smaller, more efficient, more accountable, and less intrusive. The next chart lists the 63 agencies that are involved in this effort to try to zone the oceans. This looks like much more than a planning exercise at this point.

Let me say you're going to hear from the other side from time to time something that says that planning is good. Yes, planning may be good. Planning with the intent to in effect backdoor nonstatutory rulemaking is not good.

And here's what the executive order states on its face. It says:

All executive departments, agencies, and offices that are members of the council and any other executive department, agency, or office whose actions affect the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes shall, to the full extent consistent with applicable law, comply with Council-certified coastal and marine spatial plans.

That sounds like rulemaking, to me, that has not been authorized by statute.

It's important to note that ocean zoning was debated during the 108th, the 109th, the 110th, and the 111th Congresses, and each of those Congresses determined that this action was not necessary. This clearly indicates that Congress explicitly does not intend for the oceans to be zoned in the manner that the President is attempting to do. Thus, Executive Order 13547 has no specific statutory authority, and there have been no appropriations by Congress to pay for the cost of this new bureaucracy.

My similar amendment earlier this year passed by a bipartisan vote of 233-190 to the offshore energy packaged we considered last month. This amendment was also adopted on a bipartisan basis as a part of the FY 2013 CJS appropriations bill.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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