Political Quotes

“our journey to this point on this bill has been long and tortured. And at the end of the road I find a product that, from the Washington State perspective, is greatly improved from the measure that passed out of committee and immeasurably better than H.R. 39, which was rejected by every Member of the Washington delegation, Republican and Democrat alike, and which has my support. Let me make absolutely clear, however, that even though I will vote for S. 39, as amended by the manager's amendment, any unilateral changes made by the House will be the death knell to the Sustainable Fisheries Act in this Congress. The Sustainable Fisheries Act has been sold, and bought hook, line, and sinker, by the national press and the majority of my colleagues, as the strongest environmental bill of this Congress. That is, I am afraid, an overly simplistic characterization. I do not, and have not, taken issue with the true conservation measures in S. 39. But the act is as much a social and economic manifesto as an environmental one. The bill is as much about the allocation of fishery resources--the allocation between commercial and recreational fishers, between processors and harvesters, between on-shore and offshore processors, and yes, between Washington and Alaska, as it is about the conservation of fish. Before I comment on what I think is wrong with this measure, I would like to recognize those aspects that are sound.…”