Dear Chairman Rogers:

The Obama Administration continues to move forward with zoning the oceans through implementation of the President's National Ocean Policy (Policy) without requesting funding specifically for this broad initiative and without answering basic questions about how funds are currently being diverted from other missions to fund this initiative. Therefore, I ask that you please consider including language in each appropriations bill to specifically prohibit the use of funds for the implementation of the National Ocean Policy.

As you know, a number of our Colleagues have significant concerns with the National Ocean Policy, which was created through an Executive Order and without specific statutory authority. The increased bureaucracy created by the Executive Order is astonishing: a new 27-member National Ocean Council; an 18-member Governance Coordinating Committee; 10 National Policies; 9 Regional Planning Bodies - each involving as many as 27 Federal agencies as well as states and tribes; 9 National Priority Objectives; 9 Strategic Action Plans; 7 National Goals for Coastal Marine Spatial Planning; and 12 Guiding Principles for Coastal Marine Spatial Planning. In addition, the draft National Ocean Plan Implementation Plan lists more than 100 outcomes, actions, and milestones for federal agencies to comply with beginning in 2011 and 2012.

Read the entire letter HERE.