I hope this hearing represents a turning point in NMFS' direction and helps us plot the course that we need to take.

Our fisheries management system is in a state of utter disrepair and we are caught in an endless cycle of litigation-based management.

I want to welcome you, Dr. Hogarth, and the rest of the witnesses to this critical hearing.

I think that we have to determine what will best work in terms of restructuring the systems within the agency

I think this hearing is most appropriate and fortuitously comes at a critical juncture, particularly in regards to the New England groundfish crisis.

Something has gone terribly wrong in our fisheries management and I hope today that we will be able to provide some recommendations that will visibly improve fisheries management.

Are there any updates to these recommendations? Is that what this other additional report will provide?

Unfortunately, that is exactly right. Unbelievable though it may seem, the formula that is being used actually penalizes those agencies in our two States that have done a good job of holding down costs.

Senate Republicans are committed to enacting legislation to preserve, strengthen, and save Medicare for current and future generations.

This solves the problem. For one thing, it eliminates another 15-percent cut that is scheduled to go into effect in October of next year.

The point is, cuts of this magnitude, that we have seen in the State of Maine and throughout the country, cannot be sustained without hurting senior citizens.

More than 2,300 home health agencies across the country have been forced to close their doors as a result of the regulatory burden and the flawed payment system.

The regulatory overkill of the Clinton administration has already exceeded the savings projected by the balanced budget amendment.