Political Quotes

“My friend from Massachusetts understands the challenges we have in New Hampshire, as does Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island because, in fact, fishing is one of the oldest industries we have in New England. In New Hampshire, it dates back over 400 years. Because we have a much smaller coastline than Massachusetts and Rhode Island, we have a smaller group of people who earn their living through fishing. They have smaller boats, and therefore they are more affected by some of the fishing regulations and some of the adverse weather conditions that have affected fishing. About 90 percent of the fishing New Hampshire's fishermen do is for cod, and cod is the species that has been most affected by declining fish stocks. It is a huge issue for our small remaining fishing industry. The fact that there is funding to help them in this bill is absolutely critical because without this funding we are going to lose that industry in New Hampshire. We have 5,000 jobs affected here, $106 million in income to the State of New Hampshire. I think it is important to point out that this is a bipartisan effort. Last week we had a letter with 13 of our colleagues, including Senators Wicker, Murkowski, Collins, Snowe, and Brown, urging the committee to include this funding in the bill. It is there now. I certainly hope we are going to see bipartisan support for keeping this funding in the bill. Let me just turn----”