Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, Rhode Island's commercial fishing industry provides thousands of good-paying jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of economic activity every year; but later today, the House is voting on a bill that will jeopardize this critical sector of our State's economy. H.R. 200 undermines the science-based catch limits that we have used in recent decades to keep fisheries sustainable for the long term. We have seen this movie before. It was just a few decades ago that Congress first put the science-based catch limits in place. Congress had to do so because overfishing had brought America's fisheries to the brink of economic and environmental collapse. It turns out the science works. Since Congress put these science- based catch limits in place, dozens of fish stocks have been brought back to sustainable levels and overfishing incidents have been cut substantially. Good-paying jobs in the fishing industry have thrived. The industry now, as a whole, generates billions of dollars in economic activity every year. H.R. 200 will reverse this progress. We cannot let it pass. It is a terrible bill that will harm fishermen in my State and all up and down the coast. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to reject this bill. ____________________”