Rob Bishop: “In 2010, the Department of Commerce inspector general reported that NOAA was misusing these funds for all sorts of…”

“In 2010, the Department of Commerce inspector general reported that NOAA was misusing these funds for all sorts of purposes not actually helping the fishing community. That is one of the reasons why we are clearly saying the status quo has problems, and this bill needs to go forward. This bill recognized that these funds should not be used to add to the bureaucracy, and therefore in the base bill we actually put in provisions to allow up to 80 percent of these enforcement funds to be used for collection and data and science. What Mr. Keating and others have done, though, is take the process one step further in something I think is a very commonsense solution to a problem that we do have in the status quo. I appreciate what you are doing, and I support this amendment. I urge everyone to vote ``yes,'' and I yield back balance of my time.”