Mike Thompson: “I, too, would like to thank our colleague and my friend, Mr. Wolf, for helping in this regard; and I just want to…”

“I, too, would like to thank our colleague and my friend, Mr. Wolf, for helping in this regard; and I just want to emphasize that this is a very serious problem that is impacting the lives of very real people. Both Governors, the Governors from California and Oregon, have declared disasters. They are waiting for us to act. And I have heard from countless people from not only my district, but throughout the impacted area. Barbara and Ron Kemp, who are commercial fishers from Fortuna, called me last night and said for the first time in 23 years of marriage they have missed their mortgage payment. They have exhausted all of their savings, down to the last 12 cents in their savings account. They imagine that they are going to have to sell their boat. He is 44 years old, and he has made a career of fishing. He wants to know what he is going to do. Ms. Hooley mentioned that they opened periods of the season, but those periods don't allow enough time to fish, nor is the season open in the places where there are fish. They just have no fish to catch. Barbara Stickel from Morro Bay says in May, when their portion of the season was open, they were able to fish for 5 days. They caught zero fish. {time} 1245 They are $48,000 in the hole just trying to fish those 5 days. They have no idea what they are going to do or how they are going to make ends meet. And it is not just the fishers. It is the related businesses as well.…”