For the record, this bill will not affect LWCF funds at all. All the money for the fund comes from existing oil and gas activities in the central and western Gulf of Mexico. The Land and Water Conservation Fund is credited with the first…

I thank the gentleman from Florida for his thoughtful and necessary amendment that will restore offshore drilling regulations and that will reduce the risks the Gulf communities face from offshore development. I thank him for that, and I…

As a point of reference, the BP oil spill cost the fishing industry at least, at the minimum, $94.7 million and, at the maximum, $1.6 billion in 2010. I mention that because, you know, oil spills are not necessarily good for fisheries in…

Again, the amendment is not necessary, and it is an attempt to delay and to put further risk to the Florida Gulf Coast, and I would urge its defeat. More importantly, I think concrete, real policy initiatives to enhance opportunities for…

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

we would be mandating issues in legislation and codifying, mandating the points that the Ranking Member brought up about data sharing.

salary parity is an impediment to recruitment and retention.

I think we need to look at that.

However, it still remains unclear how many of these discussions occurred.

I think data collection is one of the things that we need to do promptly.

So, concrete plans of action were proposed or considered during these discussions? Or was it more of an open-ended kind of a discussion?

I think there is a great deal of interest on the part of the Committee, and certainly the Chairman and Ranking Member, to have as much information as available from these areas in order to continue to not only be informed but to know what…