Barney Frank: “Earlier today while the House was voting, I was presiding at a meeting with the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Locke, and…”

“Earlier today while the House was voting, I was presiding at a meeting with the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Locke, and several people from the fishing industry, as well as some of our colleagues from the Senate and later from the House. It was a very important meeting affecting the future of our fisheries, and it was impossible to get another time when we could all get together with Secretary Locke, and there were people from the fishing industry and the mayor of New Bedford who had come up. For that reason I missed five votes. I missed the votes on H.R. 5307, 5756, 3199, 1745, and 5710. I would have voted 'yes' on all of them, and fortunately, I wasn't needed because they all passed handily without me. But I did want to explain that I missed those votes because of my need to be at this very important fisheries meeting.”