Political Quotes

“today I am reintroducing a bill to reform the Capital Construction Fund to address major changes in the Nation's fisheries and to allow the Nation's fishers to have access to needed funds to prevent overfishing and to help create jobs. The Capital Construction Fund, CCF, program was originally developed at a time when American fishers were having a hard time competing with highly efficient foreign fishing vessels, modern boats that often harvested U.S. fishery resources within sight of our own shores. The initial idea behind the CCF Program was to enable U.S. fishers to accumulate the funds necessary to develop a modern fishing fleet by allowing them to deposit a portion of their fishing-related earnings into a CCF savings account on a tax-deferred basis. Under the CCF program, monies subsequently withdrawn from the CCF accounts would remain tax free as long as they were invested in new or rebuilt fishing vessels. At the same time, any unauthorized withdrawals from CCF accounts were subject to severe interest and other penalties. The program was a success; the CCF program helped the U.S. industry build a modern state-of-the-art fishing fleet. Unfortunately, that fleet has now become overcapitalized, a problem that has been exacerbated as managers have become more and more concerned about potential overfishing and have begun to reduce the amount of fish that they allow fishers to catch each year. As a result, the U.S.…”