David Jolly: “Woman, I rise for the purpose of entering into a colloquy with Chairman Wolf, someone I have great respect for, and I…”

“Woman, I rise for the purpose of entering into a colloquy with Chairman Wolf, someone I have great respect for, and I compliment him on a bill that he has prepared, along with the ranking member. I prepared an amendment at the desk this evening that would reduce $8 million from the Census Bureau and instead move that money to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's operations, research and facilities account for the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations--essentially, NOAA marine research. I appreciate the chairman's comments about continuing to slice at the Census Bureau account, and for that reason, I rise for purposes of a colloquy. I understand the bill includes $175 million to operate and maintain NOAA's ships. While I would have liked to see that number increase, I understand it does match the President's budget, and in fact represents an increase of over $5 million above the enacted level from last year for purposes of funding additional days at sea. NOAA marine research is critical for a number of reasons. I represent a gulf coast district. Many Members of this House do. One of the purposes of NOAA marine research and one of the benefits that we see from it is more and better stock assessments when it comes to fisheries. We need to do better as a Nation in our stock assessments and how we study fisheries. We need to have additional study and research into the survivability of juvenile stocks.…”