Political Quotes

“today I am reintroducing a bill to reform the Capital Construction Fund. This legislation would allow fishers to withdraw monies from their CCF accounts without penalty or interest, preventing overfishing and overcapitalization. The Capital Construction Fund, CCF, program was developed at a time when American fishers were having a hard time competing with highly efficient foreign fishing vessels. The program was designed to enable fishers to deposit a portion of their fishing-related earnings into a CCF account on a tax-deferred basis. Fishers then make withdrawals from their CCF account to construct, reconstruct, or under limited circumstances, acquire fishing vessels. However, any unauthorized withdrawal from CCF account is subject to severe interest and other penalties. The program was a success. The CCF program helped U.S. fishers build a modern state-of-the-art fleet. Unfortunately, that U.S. fleet is now overcapitalized. This problem is exacerbated by concerns surrounding overfishing. Fisheries managers have begun to implement catch-share limits to reduce the number of fish that they allow fishers to catch each year. Now, the U.S. commercial fishing fleet has more harvesting capacity than our fisheries can sustainably support. However, the monies fishers put into CCF accounts remain and represent a potential for further overcapitalization. Yet, current CCF regulations penalize withdrawals made for anything other than authorized expenditures.…”