mr. speaker , i rise in opposition to this resolution for many of the reasons that my colleagues have cited . 
the fact of the matter is , we have the blueprint for what needs to be done on the oceans . 
$ 10 million was spent developing it . 
we have another one from the private sector , from the pew foundation , led by our former colleague leon panetta . 
i think they spent over $ 4 million . 
the resources committee has a budget of $ 14 million . 
if there are five other committees , most of their budgets are larger than ours , so you are approaching almost $ 100 million in public moneys that are available to deal with this issue . 
and yet we are going to create a task force to study a study and spend another $ 400 , 000 . 
either the place is so terribly bureaucratized that it can not respond or it does not want to respond . 
the fact of the matter is , we can do this through a select committee and end up with a legislative product , or we can do this through a task force and end up with a study of a study recommending to the committees , that have not shown any interest to date , that they should do something about the oceans . 
you are right , the oceans are far too important to be left to that mechanism . 
but the fact of the matter is , this task force does not take this any further down the road . 
this is about action . 
as mr. farr xz4001290 said , it is about leadership . 
we have the expertise in the committees . 
when we did the energy bill , the speaker told us that the energy bill would be on the floor by a certain date . 
the commerce committee did their part , the ways and means committee did their part . 
transportation did their part . 
resources did their part . 
we saw the bill on monday . 
we talked about it on wednesday , voted on it on friday . 
it was on the floor the following week . 
not a great process , but they obviously wanted to do something to have an energy bill on the floor . 
we have done that in other cases . 
here they simply do not want to do it . 
they really just do not want to do this to protect the oceans , because it requires a commitment of resources . 
it requires a national commitment to protect the oceans , and the republican congress is not interested in doing that . 
if they wanted to do it , they would do it . 
they simply do not want to do it . 
but what they want to do now is just throw some additional money at it to kind of kick the can down the road . 
the emotions are too important to be kicked down the road . 
this should be addressed by this congress . 
we have had a year , and nothing has happened . 
so now we are going to spend another 6 months and the ball is not going to get advanced very far , other than politically , and then we are going to be back telling the committees they should do something about the oceans . 
we just spent $ 15 million telling the committees they should do something about the oceans . 
so this is about whether you have the will to do something about the oceans , whether you have the political ability to do something about the oceans and the leadership to do something about the oceans , or you do not . 
it just does not make any sense . 
this system , i guess , should become more flexible to deal with , because almost all of the tasks now that the congress deals with cut across committee jurisdiction lines . 
so we ought to become more flexible to deal with it . 
we should not just be throwing more money at it to pretend like we are doing something to advance this incredibly important , incredibly urgent oceans agenda . 
this task force does not deal with that . 
i urge my colleagues to vote against this . 
