Political Quotes

“I come from a coastal district in Virginia, and the responsibilities and duties of the Coast Guard are integral to our everyday activities. While I will vote to support the Don Young Coast Guard Authorization Act for all these reasons, I must express my concerns with language that was added to the bill in committee that makes significant modifications to crewing aboard the important and unique vessels that do the work lifting turbines on our growing and important offshore wind farms including a new project in development off the coast of Virginia. This provision assumes that the United States presently has a sufficient number of vessels and mariners to perform this work. But as a recent report from DoE just states, we need 3-5 of these vessels and hundreds of skilled workers but unfortunately we currently lack them. The proposed crewing changes--which go into effect immediately--would block the progress Virginia and other states along the Atlantic coast are making to produce clean energy and reduce the negative impacts of climate change. I'm willing to continue working with the Members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a reliable crewing scheme that protects our national interests while ensuring that vital energy work can be done. This is not the right time to make this immediate and drastic change in the law. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Oregon (Mr.…”