{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/-schatz-hirono-bill-to-protect-hawaiis-coral-reefs-passes-the-senate", "Schatz, Hirono Bill To Protect Hawai\u2018i\u2019s Coral Reefs Passes The Senate", "2020-12-22", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Brian Schatz", "S001194", "www.schatz.senate.gov", "schatz", "https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "HONOLULU \u2014 Last night, the bipartisan Restoring Resilient Reefs Act, which wasauthored by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i) and Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawai\u2018i), passed the Senate. This bill directs federal funding and technical assistance to states, territories, and local communities for the restoration and management of coral reef ecosystems. It also reauthorizes and modernizes the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000.\n\n\u201cOcean warming and acidification have pushed our corals to the brink of extinction,\u201d Senator Schatz said. \u201cTime is running out, but we can save them if we act now. Our bill deploys federal resources to the local governments and community organizations that are in the water right now working to restore our reefs.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn Hawai\u2018i, healthy oceans and coral reefs are critical to our way of life,\u201d Senator Hirono said. \u201cThis bipartisan bill provides much needed resources to help our communities preserve and improve coral ecosystem health, and includes my coral reef prize competition, a provision I have introduced over the last three Congresses. I am proud that the Senate has passed our bipartisan bill and look forward to seeing this become law.\u201d\n\nThe Coral Reef Conservation Act, which expired more than 15 years ago, was designed to promote the conservation of our nation\u2019s reefs. In recent years, the decline in the nation\u2019s coral reefs has only become more severe. The Restoring Resilient Reefs Act modernizes the approach to coral conservation by:\n\nincentivizing increased state and local investment in coral reef management capacity;\n\nstrengthening NOAA\u2019s Coral Reef program;\n\nencouraging innovative public-private Coral Reef Stewardship Partnerships among agencies, research centers, and community stakeholders;\n\ncodifying and updating the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force;\n\nensuring that our national coral strategy is informed by a robust local stakeholder engagement process; and\n\nallowing for emergency grants for coral disasters, among other measures.\n\nFirst introduced in August 2019, the Restoring Resilient Reefs Act was cosponsored by U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and U.S. Representatives Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n (R-Puerto Rico).\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-28T00:42:23Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/-schatz-hirono-bill-to-protect-hawaiis-coral-reefs-passes-the-senate"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.537748146802187, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}