Political Quotes

“I will tell you, in Alaska it is even magnified in a lot of ways. If you think of this country, three-quarters of the coastline is Alaska. Fishermen have been fishing there commercially not just for a few hundred years but for 10,000 years of survival on our oceans. When you think of the value in 76,000 jobs in Alaska directly and indirectly connected to the fishing industry, it is over $5 billion. It doesn't matter in a commercial fishery--if you are in McDonald's having a fish sandwich, the odds are that it comes from our fisheries. If you sit in the fanciest restaurants anywhere in the world, the odds are that some of our fish is there. As Senator Shaheen said, this is a bipartisan issue. The disasters that are declared for fisheries in this bill have been declared disasters. It is not some pie in the sky, some pork, or we sit around and say: Let's get some money for every State. These are actually declared disasters by the States and our Federal Government that need to be funded. In our situation, it is even more dire--not just the economic impact I just laid out, but an elder told me one time that in urban cities, you walk out the door and you go down the street to Safeway for your food. In rural Alaska, you open your door, and what is in front of you? The nature they see is the grocery store.…”