Please ask Gulf Lawmakers to support IOOS’s inclusion in federal budget
Recently, the President released his budget, which once again removes funding for IOOS. We agree that this is especially disheartening after recent support in the House of Representatives for ICOOS reauthorization.
However, we know that by mustering your support once again, we will be able to work with our Congressional representatives to secure the support needed for the continuation of IOOS, GCOOS and the nation’s 10 other Regional Associations.
To that end, we’re asking for your help to ensure that “IOOS Regional Observations” is retained as a program within NOAA via a specific budget line. We’ve developed a template letter of support that you can customize, along with contact information for Gulf state Senators and Representatives to urge them to once again support our nation’s observing system.
The House markup — the period when House committees debate, amend and rewrite the President’s proposed budget request — is scheduled to begin this Thursday, April 30. Therefore, our request is especially time sensitive. The Senate markup is set for later in May, but sharing your expressions of support with members of both chambers as soon as possible is important.
Please do not hesitate to contact GCOOS Executive Director Dr. Jorge Brenner at jorge.brenner@gcoos.org if you have any questions, additional comments or need additional information.
We also ask that you share your emails with us, so that we may include them in the official testimony that the IOOS Association will present to the House before April 30.
We sincerely thank you for your help! We know how important the IOOS network is to our nation and it’s crucial that we continue to maintain and support ocean observations.
