James Oberstar: “But I just want to say to what a difference a week makes and how refreshing it is to be on the floor under an open rule…”

“But I just want to say to what a difference a week makes and how refreshing it is to be on the floor under an open rule where issues that are of concern to Members can be resolved in open fashion and that we can conduct the work of this committee in its traditional fashion, working in a bipartisan manner. I respect enormously the work of the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo), the chairman of the subcommittee, and our ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner), and particularly our riverboat captain chairman, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), who has not only firsthand experience on the water commanding a vessel, but has enormous respect, as I have, for the United States Coast Guard. The chairman and I served on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee from our very outset of service in the Congress, and through that work, we both came to have a great respect and admiration for the work of the Coast Guard, which started out, along with the Corps of Engineers, as one of the two oldest agencies of the Federal Government in its infancy in 1789.”