Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, as we have heard, this bill does quite a bit to open up free markets for fishermen who want to be able to use this very abundant resource. Blue catfish are incredibly abundant--in fact, to the detriment of other species that everybody loves. Opening up free markets and opening up opportunities for those fishermen is incredibly important. What this also does is to take down bureaucratic impediments. We know, right now, because of the structure that USDA has to inspect these plants that process catfish, it creates an inordinate stress on that industry. For many of them, because they don't predominate in processing blue catfish, they can't afford to have a full-time USDA inspector in their plant. What this will do is to say: Let's look at other ways to be able to utilize it. This is a great source of protein. As the world today looks for protein--remember, there is a protein deficit around the world, and we have an overabundance of protein here in the Chesapeake Bay with these blue catfish--we ought to be looking at other ways to do that, not just for human consumption. As Ms. Elfreth talked about, there is a place for human consumption of these fish, but there is also a place outside of that that commercial fishermen could fill if we allow them to be used for other purposes, especially for pet food.”