Wayne Gilchrest: “the Republicans have been in the majority for basically 10 years, and we have done a number of very positive things.…”

“the Republicans have been in the majority for basically 10 years, and we have done a number of very positive things. What I would like to speak to this august body about tonight is an issue of oceans. In 1994, when the Republican majority took over, they began to reorganize the committee process. At that time, they wanted to make it more applicable to the Members to represent their districts, to represent their regions and to be more efficiently organized, to spend the taxpayers dollars wisely. What we did, however, was to consider that we will continue to reorganize the process as the years went by to ensure that Members had an opportunity to serve on the committee that not only represented their districts, but that also represented their desire to be a visionary Member of this Congress. One of the committees that was eliminated was the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee that dealt with oceans issues, fisheries issues, the Great Lakes and things of that nature. The reason that one single standing committee was important was because there are billions and billions and billions of dollars that are generated in the U.S. economy as a result of the world's, and especially the jurisdiction of the oceans, that fall in the United States, of the oceans, whether that is trade, whether that is commercial fisheries, recreational fisheries, marine habitat, the weather, the climate, the rain that sustains the country.”