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?

I fear that this will only make the world's fishery problems worse.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Let's work a bill, like you say, bipartisanly and try to get to the situation where it needs improvement.

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.

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

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

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

I would like to say I wrote the bill with a lot of good staff help. Me and Gerry Studds, he was the Chairman, and we saw the problems we were faced with at that time of foreign fishing fleets invading our waters all the way up to 12 miles…

Not of water, either.

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…

But the big thing is, it doesn't do any good to get on the board or the council if they don't have the authority.

Although I commend my colleague, Rep. Huffman, for understanding the crucial role MSA plays in the management of our nation's fisheries, I do have concerns with his bill.

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