Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, the bill does a lot of good things, and some of the more heinous provisions of the bill that troubled me earlier, such as the licensing requirement on charter boat operators have been removed. Some very bad calls on Jones Act waivers have been removed, and I commend the gentleman for that. Obviously, this bill is important so the folks in the Coast Guard can get paid, and those things that need to be bought can be bought. This bill still contains about 20 Jones Act waivers that I consider questionable. I understand that they passed the committee earlier in the year under some circumstances that I did not quite agree to. The gentleman from New Jersey and I both come from boat-building country. People in New Jersey are great boat builders; people in Mississippi are great boat builders. Mr. Speaker, what I really object to when we grant Jones Act waivers is that law that says that every boat that is operated commercially in America must be American owned, American built and American crewed. When we allow somebody to buy a cheaper foreign vessel, it puts those guys who have lived by the rules and bought a boat in Mississippi or New Jersey, which is obviously going to cost more money because they are paying Americans to build it, it puts them at competitive disadvantage, pure and simple, and I do not think it is fair.”