For the House of Representatives you can easily search for names of members of Congress and contact information here:http://www.house.gov/representatives/
For the Senate you can search here:https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Dear Senator ______OR
Dear Representative ______
I am writing to urge you to reject the Administration’sproposal in the FY 2017 Security Supplementalthat would cut the National Sea Grant College Program (Sea Grant) by $30 million. Such a reduction with five months remaining in this fiscal year would effectively terminate the program in August 2017. We also ask you (or reiterate our previous request to you) to reject theAdministration’s FY 2018 proposal to zero out and terminate the Sea Grant program.
Sea Grant is a cost effective, competitive, merit-based partnership program that helps local, state, and regional ocean and coastal entities address economic and environmental challenges through research, extension, and education. The federal funding provided by Sea Grant is matched with other non-federal resources and 95% of all federal funding leaves Washington, D.C. to fund research and other activities that assist coastal businesses and communities in addressing critical issues affecting their economies and environments.
This would immediately stop USC Sea Grant from providing assistance for coastal hazard planning and from reaching tens of thousands of urban students with STEM education initiatives. It would immediately stop funding for numerous research projects addressing critical issues affecting California’s economy and environment, and immediately stop our ability to have huge benefits for the state of California as summarized in this one-pager highlighting our impacts: http://bit.ly/2nt6YB4
Many people would likely lose their jobs. The same would happen in the other 32 Sea Grant programs around the nation.
At USC Sea Grant we have made huge strides in protecting public health through water quality research that insures safe beach recreation for millions of residents and tourists, and sustainable planning in coastal communities. Our urban ocean focus serves millions of residents in California and provides a model for other urban coastal environments.
On the national scale, in 2015-16 the Sea Grant program helped generate an estimated $575 million in economic impacts; created or sustained nearly 21,000 jobs; provided 33 state-level programs and 534 communities with technical assistance on sustainable development practices; worked with about 1300 industry, local, state and regional partners; and supported the education and training of almost 2000 undergraduate and graduate students. The Sea Grant program achieved this with a Congressional appropriation in FY 2016 of $73 million, which, as mentioned previously, is leveraged with matching funds provided by states, universities, and other sources.
We urge you to reject the Administration’s FY 2017 proposal to immediately cut $30 million from NOAA’s Sea Grant program as part of FY 2017 Security Supplemental Appropriation — and — reject the Administration’s FY 2018 proposal to defund Sea Grant and end this valuable Federal – State – Local partnership program.
Thank you for your attention and support on these important matters.