Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, December 16, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 943 in order to attend an important event in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on H.R. 3672--Disaster Relief Appropriations Act.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, December 13, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 917. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on the question of consideration of the resolution, H. Res. 491, providing for consideration of H.R. 3630, to provide incentives for the creation of jobs, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, December 13, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 918. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on ordering the previous question of the rule, H. Res. 491, providing for consideration of H.R. 3630, to provide incentives for the creation of jobs, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, December 13, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 919. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on agreeing to the resolution, H. Res. 491, providing for consideration of H.R. 3630, to provide incentives for the creation of jobs, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, December 13, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 920. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3246, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 15455 Manchester Road in Ballwin, Missouri, as the ``Specialist Peter J. Navarro Post Office Building.''

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, December 13, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 921. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on the motion to suspend the rules and pass S. 384, to amend title 39, United States Code, to extend the authority of the United States Postal Service to issue a semipostal to raise funds for breast cancer research.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, December 12, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 913. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on agreeing to H.R. 3220--To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 170 Evergreen Square SW in Pine City, Minnesota, as the ``Master Sergeant Daniel L. Fedder Post Office.''

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, December 12, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 914. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on agreeing to H.R. 2158--To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 14901 Adelfa Drive in La Mirada, California, as the ``Wayne Grisham Post Office''.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, December 12, 2011, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 916. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on the motion to adjourn.

Madam Speaker, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 858 in order to attend an important event in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, As Amended H.J. Res. 2--Proposing a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Madam Speaker, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 859 in order to attend an important event in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on agreeing to H. Res. 470--Rule providing for consideration of H.R. 3094--Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act.

Mr. Speaker, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 854 in order to attend an important event in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on the Motion on Ordering the Previous Question on the Rule providing for consideration of motions to suspend the rules.

Mr. Speaker, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 855 in order to attend an important event in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on H. Res. 466--Rule providing for consideration of motions to suspend the Rules.

Mr. Speaker, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 856 in order to attend an important event in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on H. Res. 467--Rule providing for consideration of the Conference Report to H.R. 2112--Agriculture, Rural Development, Food & Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

personal explanation

Mr. Speaker, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 857 in order to attend an important event in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on

Adoption of the Conference Report on H.R. 2112--Agriculture, Rural Development, Food & Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

Stated against:

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 1791 and am pleased today to speak in support of the bill that names the courthouse located in Fort Pierce, Florida, as the Alto Lee Adams, Sr., United States Courthouse.

I may seem redundant because my colleague has already mentioned most of the accomplishments of Judge Adams--the fact that he was born in 1899 in Florida and was in the U.S. Navy; that he graduated from the University of Florida Law School in 1921 and began legal practice in Fort Pierce in 1924; then from practicing law for nearly 14 years, Judge Adams was appointed, as was pointed out, to the Florida State Circuit Court in 1938. That was 2 years after I was born. After serving as a circuit court judge, he served as a member of the Florida Supreme Court, again, from 1940 to 1951 and then from 1967 to 1968 and was recognized as the first graduate of the University of Florida to serve as a justice and later chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court.

He was very well noted for his short, clear opinions as well as the several books he published and, of course, the legal articles he authored. In 1974 he was awarded the honor of being a distinguished alumnus of the University of Florida.

In addition to his judicial duties, he also served as an active member of his community, serving, as was pointed out, as the president of Florida State Elks Association and also as the vice chair of the State welfare board.

Because of his exemplary career in the public service, both in the military and the Florida Supreme Court, I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting H.R. 1791, which does name the U.S. courthouse at 101 South United States Route 1 in Fort Pierce, Florida, as the Alto Lee Adams, Sr., United States Courthouse.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, having no requests for time, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

I too am very concerned about the serious threat that the invasive species pose to nonnative waters.

As the ranking member of the Natural Resources Water and Power Subcommittee, we have held various hearings on the effects of the invasive quagga mussel, the zebra and quagga mussel in western waterways. I have even traveled to Colorado in order to understand how they are looking at the R&D to be able to see how we can eradicate this invasive species.

It was introduced into the West from the ballast water of vessels coming in from the Great Lakes. This mussel is a dime-sized mussel that clogs water infrastructure. The glue is so potent that nothing can take it off. It's in the pumps. It's in the intake valves and the pipelines, costing water agencies hundreds of thousands--if not millions--of dollars to clean out to allow for the water flow.

The Metropolitan Water District of southern California spent $25 million on fighting quagga mussels since 2007. The Bureau of Reclamation is having a major problem with the mussels, as they are causing funds to be spent to scrape them off those major pipelines instead of on projects needing those funds.

I have seen firsthand the damage the quagga has done to the dams and the water supply plants in southern California. This invasive species will continue to have a devastating impact on the water supply of the West, and we must address the fact that discharges of ballast water carrying invasive species can cause irreversible harm to our Nation's waters, as is already the case in some areas.

We must allow our State regulatory agencies the ability to protect against invasive species, and I will continue to oppose the bill if it includes provisions that hinder the States from protecting their water quality. I hope the chairman and the ranking member can come to some agreement that will help our States.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Our bipartisan amendment gives United States-flagged tuna vessels in the western Pacific Ocean the option of using Guam in addition to American Samoa as their annual required port of call in order to meet U.S. maritime regulations.

This amendment would save the U.S. tuna industry millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours that are needlessly wasted being forced by the U.S. maritime regulations to travel 2,600 miles out of their way to make port visits.

The background is that the 2006 Coast Guard Authorization Act allowed U.S.-flagged tuna vessels in the western Pacific to use internationally licensed officers.

The international officer provision was created because maritime officers in the western Pacific are primarily from western Pacific nations. U.S. maritime unions were not opposed to the provision. In order to meet the requirements of that provision, the bill has required tuna vessels to make an annual port call in American Samoa, some 2,000 miles away.

In 2006, the tuna fleet in the region was very small at 12 boats. American Samoa had a market to process the fish for those boats. Since 2006, however, the tuna fleet in the western Pacific has grown to 38 vessels.

Mr. Chairman, approximately 25 of those vessels supply fish to western Pacific processors and then ship the fish product to California, to Georgia, to Illinois, to Puerto Rico for canning. These canneries provide thousands of U.S. jobs. These 25 vessels are still required to travel over 2,600 miles to American Samoa and waste 7 days at sea. This costs each boat more than half a million to make this unnecessary trip.

The purpose of this amendment is to give these tuna boats the option of stopping in Guam in order to meet the requirement of visiting a U.S. port once a year, while receiving marine inspection by the largest Coast Guard sector station in the region.

And, of course, Guam is very close to the tuna fishing grounds. Guam's Coast Guard infrastructure and personnel are excellently equipped to provide these tuna vessels with proper marine inspection and safety review on a timely basis.

I urge all of my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment which will save our U.S. tuna industry millions of dollars. The U.S. House of Representatives is already on record supporting this provision. The provision was part of the Coast Guard authorization of 2009 that overwhelmingly passed this House.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray).

Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mrs. NAPOLITANO asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

I really must commend my colleague and my friend, Mr. Young, on the introduction of this piece of legislation as we're looking for more individual entities to go to green energy and save fossil fuel. Besides, it saves many other things that we've talked about in our committees and subcommittees, so I'm glad to see this, Mr. Young.

We fully support projects designated to reduce the pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels. In this instance, a small hydroelectric project will be used to supply some of the power currently being generated by a diesel generator for a backcountry lodge.

The project will also reduce the number of trips needed to haul diesel fuel into the park. Hopefully, the National Park Service can find many other units where cleaner energy technology can be employed and thus save everybody some heartache.

I commend, again, my colleague and my friend for introduction of this piece of legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mrs. NAPOLITANO asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

I rise in support of H.R. 295, as amended, which would amend the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998 to authorize appropriations specifically for the acquisition of hydrographic data and coastal change analysis in the Arctic Ocean.

Again, I commend my colleague for this forward-looking piece of legislation. We sometimes ignore scientific evidence that will help us be able to gauge where the rest of the world is going to be in regard to changes in the atmosphere, et cetera.

And as scientific evidence does show, melting Arctic sea ice is drastically changing the Arctic landscape. The collection of data authorized by this bill would help NOAA delineate the U.S.-extended Continental Shelf, monitor coastal and ice pack changes, and also provide information so critical to international commerce, to our national defense, and to our natural resource management in that area.

I again commend and thank my colleague, Congressman Young from Alaska, for introducing the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.