Save our Seas 2.0 and S. 3751 — Congressional Record, Senate, December 15, 2020
Summary
A page of the Congressional Record, Senate, dated December 15, 2020, beginning at page S7488. A colloquy between Mr. Whitehouse and Mr. Sullivan on the Save our Seas 2.0 act thanks colleagues in both chambers, describes the Marine Debris Foundation as a congressionally chartered organization and discusses reducing plastic waste and a circular economy for plastic. A Senator discusses the First Step Act two years after enactment and S. 3751, a bipartisan bill giving the special inspector general for CARES Act oversight a 6-month window of expedited hiring authority. Near the end, remarks on ocean conservation call for a combined big blue bill, mention pirate fishing fleets and ask the Navy to report on previously passed measures.
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“Save our Seas 2.0 and S. 3751 — Congressional Record, Senate, December 15, 2020.”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2020-12-15-crec-2020-12-15-pt1-pgs7488-e3f0c47f09/
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S7488 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 15, 2020
that passed. And now Senator SUL- tioned, improving our domestic infra- the House and to get it passed on the
LIVAN and I are already discussing what structure to prevent marine debris—so Senate and House floor. I want to start
3.0 might look like. we are setting our own example, not on the House side, with the equivalent
I am not in a position to speak for just helping other countries—and then of the Whitehouse-Sullivan show is the
Senator SULLIVAN, but I am interested enhancing our own domestic response. Young-Bonamici show on the other
in looking under the hood of the recy- Senator WHITEHOUSE mentioned this side; Representative BONAMICI and Rep-
cling industry. When you put your Marine Debris Foundation. This is a resentative YOUNG, whom Senator SUL-
plastic waste into a blue bin to go off congressionally chartered private orga- LIVAN mentioned, were the key people
and get recycled, how much of it actu- nization. There are not many in the working this issue.
ally does get recycled? How can we country. This is a big deal. Thank the I want to thank my delegation, JIM
make sure that there is, in fact, a cir- Red Cross. Thank the American Le- LANGEVIN and DAVID CICILLINE, be-
cle in which plastic gets manufactured, gion. These are congressionally char- cause, during key points when it
put into use, brought back out of the tered organizations that will give this looked like things were jamming up
system, and not left in the ocean, not effort public-private partnership en- over there, they jumped up with their
left as waste on our lands? How can ergy to address the problem. That is leadership and with their colleagues to
you develop what is called the circular exactly what we are focused on here, help move things along, and I believe
economy for plastic? and that is why we thought it was so Representative YOUNG did as well.
Plastic is a weird thing. Nature important to have a Marine Debris I want to thank the majority leader,
hasn’t seen plastic before. It doesn’t Foundation as an enduring element of STENY HOYER, who at a really critical
biodegrade the way things that were the U.S. leadership that is now exem- moment, when this could have gone
made by the Lord biodegrade. Nothing plified by Save our Seas 2.0. one way or another, made sure it went
eats it. If something does eat it, it just I will mention one final thing. You the right way and got us teed up to get
piles up in its body or goes through it know, one of the things that I thought the thing done in the House and back
neutrally. It provides no nutrition or was very important—we are going to here where we could move it in the
value to anything. It is just this new keep this together—is we worked hard Senate.
thing out there. We need to figure out not to single out one industry or one In the Senate, I have spoken about
how to deal with it, and we need to get area: Hey, you are not doing a good Senator MENENDEZ’s critical role, but,
it the heck out of our oceans. job; you need to get your act together. of course, as chairman, Senator RISCH
More to come on this. But let me What we said when we put this bill to- also had to support and permit this to
take this moment to thank Senator gether is we are going to bring in all go forward. It had to clear Commerce,
MENENDEZ for his leadership, particu- the stakeholders—Democrats, Repub- where Senator WICKER and Senator
larly, on the foreign side of this, and licans, the executive branch, Federal CANTWELL were supportive and helped
Senator SULLIVAN for his leadership agencies, industry, key environmental move this along. Senator WICKER, in-
and for being such a terrific ally in this groups, ocean conservancy, World deed, has been a member of our Oceans
cause. Wildlife Foundation—and get every- Caucus from an early stage and has
With that, I yield back. body together—the Alliance to End been very helpful on oceans issues.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- Plastic Waste, which is an initiative in Then on our—Senator SULLIVAN’s and
ator from Alaska. the private sector, and say: What can my—Environment and Public Works
Mr. SULLIVAN. Let me wrap up here we do together to solve this problem? Committee, Chairman BARRASSO and
by mentioning that, as we already That is what we did. All the stake- our ranking member, Senator CARPER,
talked about, the Congressional Re- holders came together. Everybody were all very supportive.
search Service has called this the most worked closely together, good ideas, Things like this don’t get done with-
comprehensive ocean cleanup legisla- pulling on the same oar. And that is out a lot of people pulling together,
tion ever to come out of the Congress. how we got this done. and I just wanted to make sure that I
As Senator WHITEHOUSE said, 6 years You know, one of our finest Senators, thanked all of them as I close out here
ago, we were starting at nothing. And LAMAR ALEXANDER, gave his farewell on this subject.
then we got Save Our Seas 1.0, pri- speech just last week, and he talked So thank you.
marily about cleaning up our own about this idea of a split screen in the The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen-
coastlines. Senate. Yes, there is contention. Yes, ator from Iowa.
There are a lot of funny stories there, there are battles. The media loves to FIRST STEP ACT
but we did have a really interesting— play those up. But there is also another Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President,
and I thought entertaining—signing element about what we do here where as we approach the holiday season,
ceremony at the White House with the there is strong bipartisan support on many of us will be celebrating dif-
President and Senator WHITEHOUSE. really big issues: the CARES Act, the ferently. COVID–19 may be limiting
The two hadn’t met before. They got NDAA, the Great American Outdoors travel, family members we see in per-
along really well, particularly talking Act—probably the biggest conservation son, or other holiday traditions. Yet
about this issue. And it did motivate bill in 50 years—21st Century Cures; there is much to be grateful for.
the Trump administration to start fo- these are all things that we are getting For me, I am thankful for my health,
cusing more. You may have seen in the done here that matter to the American my family, my country, and my staff. I
new NAFTA, the USMCA, the first people in a bipartisan way. You don’t am also grateful to serve Iowans and
trade agreement has a whole section on always read about them in the press, work in the Senate to tackle legisla-
ocean cleanup and a whole section on but they are still happening. And now tion, conduct oversight, and work for
fisheries and sustainable fisheries. This we can add to that list the biggest the best interests of the people of Iowa.
is a really important precedent for the ocean cleanup legislation in the his- I am also thankful to reflect upon
U.S. government, regardless of party. tory of the country going to the Presi- previous accomplishments. This time
As Senator MENENDEZ mentioned, a dent’s desk for signing here in the next of year coincides with a milestone
lot of focus internationally. I want to couple of days. It is something our fel- achievement, that being the anniver-
thank him again, in terms of the For- low Americans should know about. And sary of the passage of the FIRST STEP
eign Relations Committee. Our ability as Senator WHITEHOUSE said, we are Act, and to remember that the crimi-
to help other countries—we are cer- going to build on that too. nal justice reform bill that we call the
tainly not perfect, but the big chal- I yield the floor. FIRST STEP Act is the most com-
lenge on a lot of the oceans, in terms of The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- prehensive overhaul of criminal justice
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cleanup and what comes onto the ator from Rhode Island. legislation in a generation.
shores of the United States, what Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam Presi- On December 18, 2018, the Senate
comes onto the shores of Alaska in dent, I should add a few other thank- passed the most significant criminal
terms of plastics and pollution, comes yous because this, obviously, took a lot justice reform legislation in a genera-
from overseas. We need to help there. of effort to get through all these dif- tion, and 3 days later, President Trump
As Senator WHITEHOUSE also men- ferent committees in the Senate and signed the bill into law. The FIRST
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December 15, 2020 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S7489
STEP Act is an example of what the The coronavirus has made it impos- Congress created a special inspector
Senate can accomplish when we reach sible for the Bureau of Prisons, at least general to fill a sudden need in new
across the aisle to address our Nation’s at this time, to provide this program- government oversight, this Congress
most pressing problems. I am proud ming as the law intends and requires quickly followed with additional legis-
that the FIRST STEP Act has been the because, as you know, inmates must be lation to provide the IG with expedited
law of the land now for 2 years. socially distanced from each other to hiring authority to staff his new offices
The past 2 years have been uniquely prevent the virus’s spread, which flies and also to begin timely oversight op-
challenging. In the first year of the in the face of meeting in person to par- erations. Such timely oversight oper-
law’s tenure, I worked with Senate ticipate in recidivism reduction pro- ations are particularly needed now be-
partners to oversee its implementation gramming. Therefore, as we move for- cause so much of this CARES money
efforts. This included meeting with ward, balancing effective programming that was appropriated in March has
critical stakeholders in the Justice De- access with the CDC-approved safety gone out the door.
partment, reviewing the status of the measures is critical. So, in the tradition of past Con-
law’s implementation, and ensuring As I return to the leadership of the gresses setting up other special IGs to
that the law’s application reflected Committee on the Judiciary, whether fill a sudden need, I introduced S. 3751,
congressional intent. that is as ranking member or chair- a bipartisan piece of legislation mod-
In that first year, we accomplished a man, depending upon the outcome of eled on past special IG expedited hiring
lot together, in a bipartisan way. Be- the Georgia races, I want everybody to authority language. My bill provides
cause of the FIRST STEP Act, thou- know that I am going to continue to the IG a short 6-month window to
sands of inmates received the benefits make the implementation of the quickly hire the staff he needs to build
of the retroactive application of the FIRST STEP Act a priority and will his organization and begin carrying out
Fair Sentencing Act to resolve sen- ensure the Justice Department and the the oversight mandated by Congress
tencing disparities that came about Bureau of Prisons faithfully execute under the CARES Act. However, as of
from legislation, I suppose, from al- the law. today, my bill still hasn’t passed, and
most 30 years ago between those con- Lastly, as we embark on a new Con- IG Miller has been left to work with an
victed for crack and those convicted gress and a new year, I urge my col- office that is still highly understaffed.
for cocaine. leagues on both sides of the aisle to That is an outcome that should con-
In this first year, the Justice Depart- seek the middle ground on criminal cern everyone here in the Senate if you
ment also released its risk and needs justice reform. We have done it before, are passionate about government over-
assessment system—a tool used to indi- sight and making sure that money is
and we can do it again, and more needs
vidually review the recidivism risk of spent responsibly. Whenever the gov-
to be done.
each Federal inmate and place the in- The FIRST STEP Act has made a dif- ernment spends large sums of money,
mate in programming to prevent future ference in the lives of thousands of as we have in addressing this pan-
criminal acts. The Bureau of Prisons prisoners, and it will continue to im- demic, there will always be bad actors
also issued procedures for more effi- pact many in the Federal criminal jus- somewhere out there, lying in wait, to
cient access and use of the home con- test the system to see how much they
tice system. It gives prisoners a better
finement program. can steal. We need a fully staffed and
opportunity to leave their criminal
Implementation efforts have faced fully functional IG in place to meet
pasts behind and become productive
significant challenges, however, name- those bad actors head-on to serve as an
members of society. In fact, we learned
ly, the COVID–19 pandemic. Fortu- effective check on waste, fraud, and
that from States like Texas, Mis-
nately, the FIRST STEP Act provided abuse.
sissippi, and North and South Carolina, Despite broad support for my bill
tools that the administration has been where they actually did a good job of from both sides of the aisle, I have
able to use to help vulnerable inmates. preparing people to return to society, heard rumors that some of my col-
During the pandemic, it has become ap- with productive lives, saving the tax- leagues across the aisle may be wary of
parent that inmates who are confined payers money if there is not recidi- granting expedited hiring authority to
in Federal prisons are among the most vism. Some of those States have even the IG simply because they don’t agree
vulnerable populations in the United shut down some prisons. with the personal politics of the indi-
States. As they are in Federal custody, Alerted to that, too often, Congress vidual confirmed for that position.
it is quite obvious the Federal Govern- waits to learn something from our lab- This amounts to an attempt to nullify
ment has a duty to ensure they are oratories of our political system—the the IG’s confirmation by limiting his
treated humanely. States. We learned a lot that brought ability to conduct oversight and, hope-
To that end, Senator DURBIN and I about the FIRST STEP Act. There is fully, to make sure that all of the
urged the increased review of compas- more that we can learn, and we can money that we are spending under all
sionate release and elderly home deten- build on the FIRST STEP Act. It is re- of these pandemic appropriations we
tion cases in light of the COVID–19 markable what we were able to achieve have made is spent according to the
cases within our Federal prisons. We 2 short years ago. I am hopeful to carry law; hopefully, that implies responsibly
also asked the Justice Department in- that spirit into 2021 and beyond, wheth- spending the money.
spector general to review the use of er I am chairman or ranking member Congress has already made the deci-
home confinement authority, the pre- of the Senate Judiciary Committee. sion to establish this IG. Now we need
ventative safety measures connected SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR PANDEMIC to give the office the resources it needs
with it, COVID–19 testing, screening, RECOVERY EXPEDITED HIRING AUTHORITIES to succeed. Personal and political dis-
and isolation measures, and the avail- ACT OF 2020
agreements are not reasons to deny the
ability of access by inmates to elec- Now, Madam President, I have one American people oversight of how bil-
tronic communication. I am pleased to other short point I would like to make lions of their tax dollars are being
say that this administration responded that deals directly with negotiations spent. Once the IG hires staff and has
to many of our requests, though more going on right now for a COVID–19 the ability to begin the substantive
work needs to be done as we continue package that we are trying to put to- oversight work mandated by Congress,
to grapple with the effects of COVID–19 gether. Some people call it a stimulus there will, as always, be an important
in our Federal prisons. package or something that could be place for congressional oversight to en-
One of the most important issues we put in the omnibus appropriations bill. sure the IG is doing his job.
must address is a key provision of the This goes back to the CARES Act I intend to conduct the same level of
FIRST STEP Act, that being the re- that we passed in March when Congress oversight of this IG that I have for oth-
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quirement for the Bureau of Prisons to authorized the creation of a Special In- ers. I expect my colleagues will do the
make programming available to pris- spector General for Pandemic Recovery same.
oners to help them to live productive to oversee the billions of dollars in new That is why I urge my colleagues, re-
lives once they leave prison, and that Federal spending—hence, to make sure gardless of any personal differences
will make it less likely, then, they will that those Federal dollars were spent that they have, to support this bipar-
return to lives of crime. according to the law. In the past, when tisan legislation granting expedited
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S7490 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 15, 2020
hiring authority for the Special IG for that we have directed the Navy to vation fund to make sure that coasts
Pandemic Recovery and included in the work with the Coast Guard, which has are treated fairly.
forthcoming COVID legislation. the substantive jurisdiction over all of I did not even get the chance to ask
Now, I have heard rumors within the this, and to work with the private sec- for some adjustments to treat coasts
last hour that there has already been a tor involved in solutions to this. There more fairly as an amendment when we
decision that they are not going to are such things as private sector sat- reconsidered the Land and Water Con-
move ahead on this money for hiring to ellites that track the wake and the sig- servation in the so-called Great Amer-
get this job. If that is true, I don’t nal of these illegal fishing vessels, and ican Outdoors Act, which was frus-
want anybody, whether it is a Repub- coordinating that with our intelligence trating because everybody—at least on
lican or a Democrat, to ever complain and our research I think will really my side of the aisle—talks a good game
about something that comes to light, help in fighting that battle, so that we about how we need to have more
that the money wasn’t spent the way it are sharing the information that we amendments, we need to have more
was intended to be spent or it was can and gathering the information that amendments. That deal got locked
wasted here or wasted there. Don’t we can to be more effective. down before it got to the Senate floor.
complain to me. Finally, as I recall from my travels Nobody was allowed an amendment. So
I yield the floor. with the late Senator McCain, when that was frustrating, but we will fight
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- you went to coastal countries near on because coasts need to be treated
ator from Rhode Island. China, you always heard the same com- fairly, and with sea level rise and
CLIMATE CHANGE plaint. We went to the Philippines and warming and fisheries moving about
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam Presi- heard it. We went to Vietnam and and storm surge worsening and more
dent, while Senator GRASSLEY is on the heard it. We went to Indonesia and hurricanes, the dangers to coasts are
floor, I would thank him for his re- heard it. There are probably others if I greater than before, not less.
marks about the First Step Act and let could remember more clearly that I On the Army Corps account, that is
him know that on the Judiciary Com- could add to that list. But the com- even more extreme. If you go back
mittee, I look forward to working with plaint was that the Chinese fishing through the last 10 years, the best year
him to continue to advance that. fleet is incredibly aggressive, it is tres- the coasts had in the flood and coastal
As the Senate knows, the Grassley- passing into foreign sovereign waters, storm damage account was 1 coastal
Durbin segment and the Cornyn-White- it is fishing illegally and outside of any dollar for every 19 inland dollars—1
house segment were the two key pieces respect for the domestic protections of coastal dollar for every 19 inland dol-
of that bill, and it is terrific to hear these nations, and it is often violently lars. Tell me how that is fair to coasts
the Senator and our chairman at the protected by Chinese vessels, by navy facing those same risks. And that is
time chose support to continue that or other vessels of the Chinese Govern- the best year. The worst year was 120
work. So I am grateful. ment. So focusing on that as a place to times more for inland projects than for
What I would like to do now is to fol- push back and protect our oceans while coastal projects—less than a penny on
low the conversation we had about at the same time diminishing this bad the dollar. Less than a penny on the
oceans a minute ago in the context of behavior by China is also a good thing. dollar for America’s coasts.
my ‘‘Time to Wake Up’’ speeches. So that was our suite of progress on
Obviously, the oceans are taking a So we have a lot of work to do to
pirate fishing in the NDAA.
colossal beating from climate change, make sure that we are doing what we
In the omnibus, we expect at least $75
from the warming, from the chemical need to do for our coasts. I am hoping
million to go, for the first time, into a
acidification that it causes. It is warm- that we can move the OFFSHORE
new fund to tackle ocean plastics and
ing at a rate of multiple detonations of Act—that there is even a faint chance
for ocean plastic work in the adminis-
Hiroshima-level nuclear weapons per of getting it done in the last few days.
tration.
second in the ocean. That is the So those are bits of good news, and I It had a successful hearing in Energy
amount of heat that is added, if you am delighted that those things have and Natural Resources. It has 19 bipar-
want to put an image to it. happened. The less good news from this tisan cosponsors, including Commerce
So we have done some good things on past year is that coasts remain sadly Chairman WICKER, and it would treat
oceans in this Congress, and I would underfunded, and we have missed some wind energy offshore the same way for
like to summarize some of those. real opportunities. revenues that we treat oil drilling off-
One, obviously, is Save Our Seas 2.0 Two of the accounts that dem- shore—i.e., 37.5 percent to the nearby
that Senator SULLIVAN, Senator onstrate how badly funded coasts are State, 12.5 percent to a dedicated fund.
MENENDEZ, and I just discussed, but we facing these threats from the changing In this case, it would be the Oceans and
also have a little package of enforce- oceans are the Land and Water Con- Coastal Fund because it is oceans and
ment provisions in the National De- servation Fund, which should properly coastal. It is one of the ironies that
fense Authorization Act that focus on be called the inland and freshwater most of the money that comes off of
what is commonly called illegal, unre- conservation fund, and the Army Corps coastal oil drilling—offshore oil drill-
ported, and unregulated fishing—IUU Flood and Coastal Storm Damage Re- ing—gets moved into the Land and
fishing—which is a really boring and duction Fund. Water Conservation Fund, where it
bureaucratic name for extremely bad If you go back and look at how this goes out West and is spent on inland,
behavior. money actually gets spent, for every not coastal, projects.
Essentially, it is modern slavery at dollar that the Land and Water Con- So we continue to have real work to
sea for the crew, who are miserably servation Fund spends in an inland do. There is the BLUE GLOBE Act,
trapped on these illegal, pirate fishing State, in a landlocked State, per cap- which I have with Senator MURKOWSKI,
vessels. They are also an avenue for ita, it spends only 40 cents in a coastal on data monitoring in the oceans and
trafficking of humans, of narcotics, of State—a dollar per capita inland, 40 Great Lakes—we are going to continue
arms, or whatever. Once you are out in cents per capita coastal. And that ac- to push forward—and our Blue Carbon
a boat outside, beyond the realm of the tually understates the coastal discrep- bill, which will help us address the
law, operating illegally and doing ancy because it doesn’t count the changes in the oceans that climate
whatever you can for money, you will spending in coastal States that isn’t on change is wreaking. With Blue Carbon,
do pretty much anything there is. So coasts. You have coastal States like things like growing mangroves are in-
in addition to ransacking our common New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas credibly powerful as a carbon sink,
seas, these pirate fishing fleets are that have big, big upland inland areas kelp and sea grass—to get that re-
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really dangerous vectors for really dan- in which most of the Land and Water search done and do the work we need to
gerous criminal conduct. Conservation Fund money goes. to deacidify our oceans while we still
I am glad that we have put a little So what we really ought to do is call have reefs that are alive.
more heat on the Navy to up its game this what it is, which is an inland and My ideal would be a ‘‘big blue bill’’—
and report on its implementation of freshwater conservation fund, and have a big blue bill that combines BLUE
previously passed measures. I am glad a parallel coastal and saltwater preser- GLOBE, Blue Carbon, and others and,
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