Don Young

The Pacific Seafood Processors Association (PSPA) represents the shared policy and regulatory interests of commercial seafood processors in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

The current MSA is not deserving of any changes as it was fine-tuned by time honored Statesmen such as Congressman Young, Senator Inouye, Senator Magnuson, and Senator Stevens.

They have to have the say, not the Secretary of Commerce.

I would like suggestions from your great company in maybe how we can lower that, because you are constantly saying it is the trollers, it is the trollers, it is the trollers.

I believe the councils can actually manage the fish better than a centralized political figure.

I don't think that the Secretary of Commerce would be as anti-tribe as the Department of Fish and Game is at this time.

What good are two members of the council--although their being native, what will it help you if you don't have the authority to make decisions on the council?

If I hadn't passed my bill, you wouldn't be sitting there. I remember that back in 1976.

More broadly, this sequence of events starkly illustrates why we believe fishery management plans should be developed in-region through a transparent and robust review process rather than through an outside, centralized body.

The facts and data do not support this. In the North Pacific, bycatch has been on the agenda at nearly every meeting since I began working in the Council process in 2015.

Actions are working--and need to support sustainable, healthy fisheries for all.

I empathize with subsistence users in Western Alaska, and while I can never fully know the pain and sense of loss that they are feeling or their connection to the resource and culture, I appreciate what they are saying and am aware of the…

It was the 'Alaska model' that guided the reauthorization processes.

Forty-five years ago, Congressman Don Young teamed up with Congressman Gerry Studds to sketch out the framework for a new federal fisheries law.

I would like to focus my remarks today on one primary point, and that is that the regional stakeholder-driven framework of the Magnuson Act has been a remarkable success.

The successful management framework created by the Magnuson Act is precisely why we have the confidence in investing hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years into projects that modernize our aging infrastructure.

I want to acknowledge and express appreciation for the work of Congressman Young, who was not only instrumental in framing what I view as one of the most successful conservation statutes ever written, the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

I have heard you mention the term 'climate change.' I advise everybody, yes, climate is changing.

I want to write it--whatever we do, we have to write it somehow that we get the job done for sustainable yield of the species for the benefit of the communities also along that line for the sustainable.

Not of water, either.

In conclusion, both bills...are well-intentioned.

On the other hand, we will hear that Mr. Huffman's reauthorization bill goes in the opposite direction.

Mr. Young's bill continues that management style while providing for more flexibility and transparency in the law.

I look forward to once again hearing from the countless Alaskans and Americans who helped us develop these positive reforms.

My legislation, H.R. 59, would make a number of improvements to the MSA in order to ensure a proper balance between the biological needs of fish stocks and the economic needs of fishermen and coastal communities.