On the recordJuly 25, 2011
I yield to the gentleman from Ohio. Mr. LaTOURETTE. I want to commend the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) for the reasoned and balanced approach he has taken to this. Rather than filing a knee-jerk reaction either in committee or now on the floor, he has recommitted to working together to solve this problem. {time} 1600 It's a problem that needs to be solved. And I just want the record to be clear: In 2008, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation--not the State legislature, not the State--enacted ballast water exchange regulations that would have gone into effect, had they pushed the issue, that are 100 times more stringent than the international standard and would have gone to 1,000 times more stringent a year after that. Only two States, New York and Minnesota, had something in their regulations called ``innocent passage,'' and that is it applies to all ships that pass through New York's water, whether they take on ballast water or discharge ballast water or whatever. I take a backseat to no one in this Congress on the issue of invasive species in the Great Lakes. My first piece of legislation I wrote was with Senator John Glenn, the Invasive Species legislation, in 1996. But this particular provision by the New York Port Authority would cripple and perhaps eliminate commerce on the Great Lakes. So this deserves thoughtful consideration. It deserves our study. And I would again commit to the gentleman from New York (Mr.…
