Olympia Snowe

I commend you for the proposal to include in your budget the consolidation of all the climate research services under one umbrella.

Well, I'd like to have the benefit of that review. When will that be completed?

I don't dispute that. I think that, obviously, the results of the reports speak in themselves in terms of what happened in our region.

Couldn't we go beyond a freeze and make some reductions, because it really does open the question as to why this office should have 149 personnel dedicated to criminal enforcement actions when most of the activity is 98 percent…

Under the law concerning the listing under ESA is it a very strict process that you have to adhere to?

Well, that's certainly a double whammy if this industry is managed both through, obviously, the international organization and then, at the same time, under the Endangered Species Act, because it's a highly migratory species, as you know.

I hope, though, that the focus could also be placed on the maximum yield and maximum harvesting on the part of the fishermen.

I don't want this funding to be consumed by bureaucracies, but rather to expand the maximum yield.

As Senator Snowe noted, as we look toward Earth Day next week, I want to acknowledge and highlight the 35th anniversary of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this timely hearing today to review the President's Fiscal Year 2012 budget request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

I mean, it's a very difficult process, and I just wonder if there's an interim period by which everybody can reflect on the status review before it prompts a rulemaking.

The burden is on the small business community, frankly. And it is a disproportionate burden.

Have you identified specifically what resources you need to be a regulatory bulldog?

Agencies ought to be able to justify their regulations.

I think it would be quite enlightening because I have a feeling that a lot of agencies do not.

I could not agree with the Chair more on this core issue that goes to the heart of the difficulties so many small businesses are confronting in America.

We have got to reverse this because it creates a perverse incentive within the agencies.

Well, can you tell me how many new employees have been added as a result of this?

I would like to get to the heart of these administrative costs.

I hope this new autonomous budget sends a clear signal that regardless of the Administration, Advocacy will remain independent and fully equipped to handle the myriad of challenges that lie ahead.

I ask for the yeas and nays. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The question is on agreeing to the amendment. The clerk will call the roll. The assistant legislative…

Senator Snowe spoke of NMFS' "antagonism, mistrust and dysfunction" and its "reckless and vindictive actions" that "undermine, harass and sometimes bankrupt fishermen."

Deferring to caution and reducing total allowable catch can destroy a community, such as Prospect Harbor, Maine.

Yes, every decision that affects fishing communities must give full consideration to a serious analysis of the impacts of such decision.

We greatly appreciate the fact that Senator Snowe is among those few that have taken the time to reach this understanding.