Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation And Management Reauthorization Act Of 2006
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. And I will be brief. I do want to again thank all of those who have worked so hard on this bill for so long. I especially want to thank the ranking member of the committee, Mr. Rahall, who…
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
And I will be brief. I do want to again thank all of those who have worked so hard on this bill for so long. I especially want to thank the ranking member of the committee, Mr. Rahall, who has worked with me not only on this legislation but so many pieces of legislation over the last 4 years and gave us the opportunity to do some real good things on the Resources Committee.
I know that as this bill was introduced originally, Barney Frank from Massachusetts was an original sponsor
on it. We did a hearing up in his district and listened to the concerns of a lot of the fishermen in the communities that are impacted by this law. Unfortunately, all of the things that we originally set out to take care of are not included in this bill, but where we end up on this, I believe it is a bill that is better than current law. It is a stronger bill. It is something that addresses many of the issues that have been raised over the last several years in hearings and meetings that we have had in trying to improve the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
I also want to particularly mention two of the Members on our side of the aisle, Mr. Gilchrest and Mr. Saxton, who worked extremely hard in trying to craft a bill that would fit with the concerns and needs of their constituency. As well as that, Chairman Don Young, former chairman of this committee, chairman of the Transportation Committee, obviously has always put a great deal of effort and work into fisheries issues, and his work will continue into the future in trying to improve this law.
But I want to thank Mr. Rahall for all the work not just on this legislation but all the work that he has done over the last 4 years. It has been a great experience for me having an opportunity to work with him. Over the last 4 years, I believe that we have passed more legislation out of the Resources Committee than all the rest of the committees combined. And during that time period we had one bill that went through on a party-line vote, and other than that we were able to work out bipartisan compromises on everything. He and I didn't agree every single time, but we were able to work out something so that we had a bipartisan bill moving, and I appreciate all that he did as my ranking member and I wish him nothing but luck in the future.