Washington quieted down for a couple of minutes and then in the blink of an eye was fired up again.  Some very positive things happened this week for the ocean community.

After a lengthy process, Jane Lubchenco and John Holdren finally received confirmation yesterday evening as the Senate voted unanimously on both nominations.  Holdren will be the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and will be the key person as the liaison between the new Administration and the science community. Jane Lubchenco is the first marine biologist to take over as the Under Secretary of Commerce for NOAA.  I have enormous respect for both of them and am very much looking forward to working with them on ocean issues over the years to come.

The Senate also passed an omnibus federal lands bill (H.R. 146) after a long delay and several holdups from Senator Coburn (R-OK).  This week, the Senate called up an unrelated battlefield preservation bill that passed the House on March 3rd and substituted the text of its lands bill, with modest modifications. Under a deal struck by Senate leaders, Coburn was allowed to offer six amendments to the package. Five were tabled, and thus killed, including one amendment that would have removed the ocean exploration provisions from the bill. It was defeated, 70-27.

Because H.R. 146 already passed the House once, it will not be open to amendment when it returns to that chamber and only a simple majority vote will be required for its passage.  You might ask why this is important to the ocean community.

There are five ocean bills in the S.22 Lands Package:

• To establish the national ocean exploration program and the national undersea research program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (H.R.366)

• NOAA Undersea Research Program Act of 2009 (S.172)

• Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act (H.R.365 & S.174)

• Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 2009 (H.R.367 & S.171)

• Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring (FORAM) Act of 2009 (H.R.14 & S.173)

The last thing I wanted to touch on this week was the change of leadership at the Ocean Studies Board.  Shirley Pomponi, Ocean Leadership’s Chair of the Board of Trustees, stepped down and Marcia McNutt, an active Member of Ocean Leadership, will be the new Chairwoman of this most important ocean committee.  I have worked with Marcia on a number of issues and look forward to interacting with her again in her new role.  Under Shirley’s leadership, the OSB explored the science, policies, and infrastructure needed to understand, manage, and conserve coastal and ocean environments and resources through the many important reports that were produced and participation in Congressional hearings. Shirley was able to position and raise the visibility of the OSB as a critical group leading the ocean community on issues such as climate change, ocean and human health and ocean energy. Marcia has a firm foundation to move the committee forward.

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