Wayne Gilchrest: “I want to add my full support for this legislation and the amendments that will be proposed here in the next few…”

“I want to add my full support for this legislation and the amendments that will be proposed here in the next few minutes. I also want to thank the chairman of the full committee for his support of this legislation, the full ranking member for his support of this legislation, and also the support of the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the ranking member of the subcommittee, for his work over the last several months on this legislation. We have worked very well together and I look forward to the rest of the session. Mr. Chairman, I will not specifically go into all of the funding details, because that will be in the statement I will submit for the Record, but what I would like to do for the Members of the House, those of whom are listening, is to go through the kind of things that this limited force does for the United States. Number one, it is the U.S. Coast Guard that is directly responsible for the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and all of its provisions around this country. Since the Oil Pollution Act went into effect, and since the Coast Guard has been monitoring this issue and enforcing this statute, oil spills in the world have dropped by 60 percent. It is through much of the effort of the U.S. Coast Guard in this area that is responsible for that drop. I have visited Prince William Sound, the sight of the Exxon Valdez spill, and the infrastructure put in place mainly because of the Coast Guard activities is phenomenal.”