-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a bill, the Continued Rapid Ohia Death Response Act of 2022. This bill requires the Secretary of the Interior to continue partnering and collaborating with the Secretary of Agriculture and the State of Hawaii to address Rapid Ohia Death, ROD. ROD is a fungus, Ceratocystis, that was first found in Hawaii in 2014 and has since killed over a million native Ohia trees. Since then, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service has partnered with the State of Hawaii and the U.S. Department of the Interior in efforts to detect and respond to the spread of ROD. Sustained efforts, such as those supported by this bill, are necessary to protect Ohia trees, which comprise 80 percent of Hawaii's native forests.
Over the past 8 years, ROD has been detected on Hawaii Island, Kauai, Maui, and Oahu. Efforts are currently underway to educate the public to reduce the spread, research transmission vectors of ROD such as humans, beetles, ungulates, and weather events, and test ROD resistant varieties of Ohia. This bill directs the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the U.S. Geological Survey, to continue providing resources for the purposes of researching ROD vectors and transmission. It also requires the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to work with the State of Hawaii and other local stakeholders on ungulate management in control areas on Federal, State, and private land. Finally, the bill requires the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, to continue providing resources to prevent the spread of ROD and restore the native forests in Hawaii and to also continue to provide financial and staff resources to the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, IPIF, located in Hilo, to continue research on ROD.
The bill authorizes $5 million in appropriations for each fiscal year from 2023 through 2033 for both the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to carry out these actions, which are necessary to protect and restore Hawaii's most abundant native tree--Ohia--for future generations. ______
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source