John Kerry: “I begin by saying very quickly there is an amendment that has been brought forward to try to strike from an emergency…”

“I begin by saying very quickly there is an amendment that has been brought forward to try to strike from an emergency assistance bill critical aid, aid that is, frankly, less than it ought to be in order to deal with the crisis of the fisheries not of one State but of the entire New England region and of other regions of the country--the Pacific, also, and other parts of the country that have been hit. The fact is that in Massachusetts we have 77,000 jobs, a billion- dollar industry that is a part of our culture and a part of our history. Fishing is vital to our State. We have local fishermen, we have commercial fishermen, we have a sports fishing industry, and it is a vital part of the commerce of our State and of the entire history of our Nation. We have been hit in the last years by record levels of reduction in our fish stocks, and we have also been hit by Federal regulations that are trying desperately to hold on to those fish stocks for the long term and for the future, which have, regrettably, reduced our fishing effort in certain fisheries by 50 to 80 percent. We have fishermen who have their boats--just like a home--mortgaged.…”