Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, as the author of H.R. 716, I rise in strong support of this measure to reauthorize and improve the Fishermen's Protective Act of 1967. Mr. Speaker, one of the major motivations for this legislation was an incident that occurred last year when 258 United States fishermen were unfairly charged $1,100 each by the Canadian Government to sail through the Inside Passage. While we were successful in convincing the Canadians to stop collecting these illegal transit fees, the Fishermen's Protective Act [FPA] must be amended to allow these Americans to be compensated for their financial loss. My bill would reauthorize the FPA for the next 3 years; allow money to be deposited in the Fishermen's Guaranty Fund, regardless of whether Congress appropriates any money; expand the compensation provision to cover those Americans who paid the illegal fee assessed by the Canadians; and prohibit port entry to the vessels of any nation that assesses illegal fees on our vessels in the future. Furthermore, we are making it clear that we will fully protect the rights of U.S. fishermen. We will not allow Canada, or any nation, to violate international maritime law or fishing treaties without a swift response.”