Sam Farr: “I rise in support of H.R. 3460. I would also like to say before beginning the statement here, point out how much I have…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 3460. I would also like to say before beginning the statement here, point out how much I have enjoyed working with the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton). I think that our committee is a committee that deals an awful lot with public domain and the oceans and the resources in the oceans, and we work in a wonderful bipartisan effort to make sure that those resources are protected for the citizens of this country and, frankly, the world, and this legislation in a small way plays a part in that. What this legislation does, Mr. Speaker, is reauthorize several important fishery conventions, including the governing international fishery agreement between the United States and the Republic of Latvia. While the international agreement is unlikely to result in a foreign allocation of fish from U.S. waters, we have in several instances permitted foreign vessels to process fish caught by U.S. fishermen in the United States waters. As such, the GIFA, which is the Governing International Fisheries Agreement, renewal is an important building block in our long-term bilateral relationships with the Republic of Latvia and was requested by this administration to potentially allow both countries to expand their business opportunities.”