Mark Begich

Keeping Alaska status quo is what we are interested in.

In my opinion, from an Alaska context on this, the legislative fix of the 2009 Supreme Court ruling regarding the ability for tribes to take land in trust, this is not a place, and I know there is some work here, this is not a place to…

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent it adjourn under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 6:03 p.m., adjourned until Thursday, November 14, 2013, at 9:30 a.m…

The vote on adoption of the motion to proceed to the compounding bill is expected to be a voice vote. ____________________

What you want is, why you've got these regional councils set up, is to give input and help direct some of this resource.

Fisheries, there's nothing simple about it.

I mean, you're doing it right now, actually----for your season next. And when you're putting those ads in the magazines and all that stuff and then some of the rules get changed, you're hanging out there. Is that fair?

Nothing much actually comes to fruition. It's very discouraging and frustrating for the local economies when nothing actually happens.

It's not just one person there that weekend doing this. It's long-term.

More frequent stock assessment would be a data point that's necessary for a good solid baseline.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act is a good baseline.

I think it's incumbent upon everybody to have a little skin in the game, and I don't think it's too much to ask.

Because otherwise, if it's a smaller, a shorter time period, you've got a lot of customers, but you only have so many boats, but they can't survive on a 28-day cycle.

There seems to be good science, but more science can be done.

We want input. So many times I get complaints--I don't know if Senator Rubio does--we put a bill down and then people say, why didn't you ask us.

I think that's the best way to sort of gather the information that we can improve management with.

So for example, if a quota was reduced and therefore folks doing charters get limited out or limited in what they can--or even the size, like what we have in Alaska on some of our halibut, then those folks who are booking charters, you may…

We get a lot of talk and not a whole lot of action.

If I can leave you with a thought... would you mind considering that thought and bring back to the Committee at some point?

This subcommittee has been known to bring the bills forward, as we did last year on Coast Guard, in a bipartisan approach.

Why the public is so mad at the Federal Government in many different ways is we say something and then when the money's allocated, then it goes to somewhere else.

These reforms...put us on a firm footing for the sustainable management of our fisheries and our fisheries resources.

In Alaska we have one more element called subsistence hunters.

We respectfully ask that you give due consideration to our requests so that all fishermen in the South Atlantic will benefit from your decisions.

We may be literally across the country from each other; the issues that we face are pretty important.