Wayne Gilchrest

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for the immediate consideration of the bill (H.R. 3535) to redesignate a Federal building in Suitland, MD, as the ``W. Edwards Deming Federal Building.''

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Shuster], chairman of the full committee, for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I do want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Shuster], the gentleman from New York [Mr. Boehlert], the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Borski], and the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Oberstar], for working on this bill for many, many months, and creating an excellent piece of legislation in truly a bipartisan fashion. When I say an excellent piece of legislation, this is an economic stimulator for the country, and it is an environmentally sound piece of legislation. Five quick comments I want to make. It truly does stimulate the economy, imports and exports, as far as this Nation is concerned and its waterways. In Maryland alone, it is directly connected to 18,000 jobs, and many more that are spinoffs, and directly related to $2 billion annual sales as a result of the Baltimore Harbor. It goes a long way in understanding the nature of sediment control as far as the marine ecosystem is concerned. It has environmental alternatives to disposing of dredged material. It enhances wildlife habitat, which is another $1 billion to the Maryland economy. It goes a long way to understanding the important of eliminating persistent toxic chemicals. This is a great piece of legislation.

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. S. 1636 is an act to designate the U.S. courthouse under construction in Portland, OR. as the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. This designation is a fitting tribute to the senior Senator from the State of Oregon, who is retiring after serving 30 years in the U.S. Senate. Senator Hatfield has provided thoughtful leadership and pragmatic philosophy to whatever office he has held, be that university president, State representative, Governor, or Senator. Senator Hatfield is a native of Oregon, and was educated in Oregon schools. Following service in the Navy during World War II, where he commanded landing craft at Iowa Jima and Okinawa, he returned to civilian life. He became an educator and university dean of students at Willamette University. He began his political career in 1950 in the Oregon legislature. After two terms in the Oregon house and 2 years in the Oregon senate, he was elected secretary of state for Oregon, and in 1958 was elected Governor and served two terms. In 1966, Senator Hatfield was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he has served with distinction until his retirement this year. His 30-year service is the longest service of any Senator from Oregon. I am pleased that our colleagues, Mr. Bunn and Mr. Cooley, cosponsored a companion bill, H.R. 3134, and I am pleased that a Member of the committee, Mr. DeFazio was principal sponsor of that bill. I support the bill and I urge my colleagues to pass the bill. One final note on this bill. When the other body passed S. 1636, a floor amendment was added to extend the membership of retiring Members of Congress on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Commission. This Commission was created in 1955, and Senator Hatfield has been a member of this Commission for 25 years. The Senate amendment would allow Senator Hatfield to continue his service on this Commission for the dedication of the FDR Memorial in May 1997. The Commission will cease to exist after the Memorial opens.

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 1995, a bill to authorize construction of the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum Dulles Center at Washington Dulles International Airport. This bill authorizes the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to construct an extension to the Air and Space Museum currently located on the Washington Mall, on a 185 acre site in the Dulles Airport complex in Virginia. The new facility will permit airplanes, spacecraft, and aviation related artifacts currently stored outdoors to be housed in structures built to museum standards; and provide improved facilities to house the aviation artifacts which are currently stored at the outdated Paul E. Garber facility in Suitland, MD. In addition, the extension will provide a restoration facility capable of handling the largest artifacts in the collection, such as the space shuttle Enterprise and the historic Enola Gay B-29 bomber, for public viewing. The measure ensures that no appropriated funds will be used to pay any expense of the construction. The Smithsonian Institution is responsible for privately raising funds for the project and the Commonwealth of Virginia has pledged to provide infrastructure support in the amount of $40 million, a $3 million interest free loan, a $6 million construction appropriation, and authority for a $100 million bond issue. The bill has bipartisan support and I wish to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their assistance in bringing this measure to the floor. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, the bill designates the U.S. courthouse located at 611 North Florida Avenue, Tampa, FL, as the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. courthouse. Sam Gibbons has been a distinguished Member of this body for 34 years and will be retiring after he finishes his 17th term in the House of Representatives. Sam has a long history of public service, beginning in World War II, where he served as captain in the 501st Parachute Infantry/101st airborne division. He was part of the initial assault force in Normandy on D-Day and was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions. Sam has been a Member of the Committee on Ways and Means since 1969, where he served as acting chairman in 1994 and became ranking minority member in the 104th Congress. Sam has conducted himself with dignity and commanded respect from those who have served with him. I urge my colleagues to support this fitting tribute to our distinguished colleague. The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Shuster], who could not be here today, strongly supports this legislation. I, as a Member of the House, Mr. Gibbons, an American and a veteran thank you for your long, distinguished, courageous career to this most great country, the United States.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, this amendment in the nature of a substitute simply sets an effective date of the bill of January 3, 1997.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 3710) to designate a U.S. courthouse located in Tampa, FL, as the ``Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse'' and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on the two bills just passed.

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. This amendment, Mr. Speaker, simply strikes the finding from the bill. This is to conform the bill to the style used by the committee.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, the bill designates the Federal building located at 290 Broadway in New York City as the Ronald H. Brown Federal Building. Ronald H. Brown was the first African-American Secretary of Commerce where he was influential in promoting U.S. trade abroad. He was a champion for expanded markets for U.S. goods and services abroad and opportunities at home. Ronald H. Brown was a civil rights advocate with a distinguished record of service and commitment to his country. It is unfortunate that he lost his life in the Balkans on April 3, 1996. I urge my colleagues to support this fitting tribute to this distinguished American. We all here hope today that even though this tragic loss has denied the family of Mr. Brown's presence, as they walk past the courthouse and see his name there, some of the friendly presence that he left with us will be felt by them. The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Shuster] could not be here for this, but he concurs strongly with the naming of this Federal building after the distinguished life and service of Mr. Brown. I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 3560) to designate the Federal building located at 290 Broadway in New York, NY, as the ``Ronald H. Brown Federal Building,'' and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I understand the nature of the difference between the way in which tuna and dolphins act in the eastern tropical Pacific. We have reduced the dolphin kill in the eastern tropical Pacific to a little over 3000. We have not reduced the kill of dolphins in the western tropical Pacific where we have no management ability.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding the time. If I may, the gentleman from California asked me to get my own chart so I will not use the chart that the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi] used just a second ago. What I would like to do, when we looked at the chart from Ms. Pelosi, the fine gentlewoman from California, she showed us a dolphin sort of beat up and said that that is what is going to happen under our bill, and then a dolphin that looked really healthy and find and not beat up. That is what would happen with their bill and their dolphin-safe bill. What I want to explain though, just another point, existing law, 10,000-40,000 dolphins are killed that are not observed. Many likely are killed in the process of catching tuna fish that are sold in the United States because we do not observe those deaths as dolphin-safe with the label. What we want to do is put an observer on every single boat, every single time they fish for dolphins, every single time they fish for tuna, and they cannot sell that tuna in the United States unless they have a licensed observer on board. We want to protect the system, protect the truth in labeling. Vote against the Studds amendment.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding this time to me. What I would like to explain to the Members that will be voting here in the next hour or so is that we have a piece of legislation that has been put together in the light of day by numerous interested parties, by the fishermen who want to catch their fair share of fish, by scientists who understand the complexity of the nature of the marine ecosystem, by elected officials in the United States that want to ensure jobs and ensure environmental quality and ensure the sovereignty of the United States. This bill has absolutely nothing to do with reneging on our environmental policies, this bill has nothing to do with violating the label so consumers understand that they are eating dolphin safe tuna. Mr. Chairman, this is a bill that puts the best of American together, to join us with 11 other nations to understand the nature of limited resources and a bulging population. This bill understands the nature of trying to get international agreement on sensitive environmental issues. This bill is a first step to understand the nature of complex environmental issues such as global warming that we will have to sit down at the table and find agreements on. Now the issue here is encirclement, the issue here is encirclement that deals with purse seine nets, and yes, those purse seine nets since the 1950's have killed hundreds and thousands of dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific, and yes, the United States placed an embargo on that type of encirclement, the United States placed a gear restriction so that we would not import tuna where dolphins were killed. But there are still not only dolphins being killed in the pursuit of tuna, there are tens of thousands of sharks as bycatch. There are immature tuna being caught in other methods that will never stand the chance to spawn, and so the tuna population will continue to diminish. So we have gotten together in the light of day in LaJolla, CA some years ago to try to figure out, we, as intelligent human beings, trying to figure out how we can manage our resources, feed the world and sustain the environmental marine ecosystem for generations to come. Now a speaker earlier talked about the Polynesians and their values for life, both human and animal, fish species, mammals and so on. Those same values of respecting life on planet Earth are an inherent part of this piece of legislation, and so encircling dolphins the way it used to be, encircling tuna the way it used to be, killed tens of thousands of dolphins. In this new method, which is not an end-all to this scheme of things, we are not going to adopt this legislation and have this agreement with 12 other countries and not continue to pursue to understand the nature of how to catch tuna without killing one dolphin. We are continuing to study this issue. We encircle the dolphins. I say to my colleagues, Now imagine a boat with a circle around the back of that boat, and you have encircled the tuna fish that are swimming underneath these dolphins. The boat stops with a licensed observer on board, and then the back of the net drops down. Into that circle, into that net, go members of that tuna boat to chase the dolphins and the other marine mammals out of that net, and the net drops down below the surface of the water. And until all the dolphins are out of the net, that net does not get pulled and the tuna do not get processed on board ship. This is not a perfect solution. There is no utopia on planet Earth. We must manage our limited resources with the technology that is available to us at this moment, and in my judgment the technology to reduce dolphin deaths, the technology to ensure the honesty of labeling dolphin safe tuna is this legislation. So I will encourage my colleagues, as painful as it is to the gentleman from Massachusetts and the gentleman from California, and I very rarely vote against these two gentlemen when it comes to environmental issues, but I would encourage my colleagues to vote against the Miller-Studds amendment and vote for this legislation.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding me this time, and I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for his applause. Mr. Chairman, if we could just look at this photograph over here for a second, what I want to try to display to my colleagues is the present condition of the marine ecosystem under the present law. When we talk about bycatch, that means discarded fish, that means discarded marine mammals, that means discarded reptiles, that means discarded turtles, sea turtles, many of which are endangered. If we look at this picture, up in the right-hand corner we will see sharks that are discarded in the present process of fishing techniques. If we look at this photograph here, we will see in this trough immature tuna that will not be able to spawn, that will not sustain the population. The basic point I want to get across here is that we need to find new methods of fishing, new techniques. Unless we change what we are doing at the present time, and unless we have an agreement with other countries to try to preserve and sustain the resources of our coastal oceans, we cannot do it alone.

Mr. GILCHREST. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I will try to in 60 seconds educate people on encirclement, log sets, and tuna sets, if I can. Basically, encirclement the way we did it in the past was bad. We had an embargo, we ended it, we reduced the dolphin kills from 100,000 a year down to under 4,000 a year. That is what we are trying to do here. Log sets. Tuna, for some strange reason, will swim under something. If they do not swim under dolphins like mature tuna fish do, they will swim under logs. Now, we have a lot of immature tuna that swim under logs. We do not have any dolphins there, but when they encircle the tuna and catch them in these big nets, not only do they catch tuna fish, but what we see in these pictures here is they catch many more marine species. These species are under stress because they are being discarded. They are not being used.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Chairman, in response to the assertion of the gentleman from Massachusetts, let me respond to the study that was done on stress by Dr. Elizabeth Edwards of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This is what she said about the study concerning stress in dolphins: ``While all five reviewers felt that post-mortem examination of one or more physiological or histological samples taken from dolphins killed during purse-seining might well provide some indication of types and amounts of stress the animals may have experienced prior to death, none of the reviewers,'' talking about the study that was done, ``none of the reviewers felt that the body of work described in this paper presented any convincing evidence. In particular, the reviewers'' of the study ``were unanimous in their opinion that the study failed to confirm the stated conclusion * * *''

Mr. GILCHREST. The whole reason for this particular legislation is threefold: to reduce the number of dolphins killed, to reduce the number of marine species that are killed in the process of catching tuna, and to set up an agreement that we are sponsoring to ensure the sustainability of the marine ecosystem. We can then open the door to a number of other environmental agreements, including global warming. What I want to do is to talk briefly on some of the charges that the other side has made. Last year there were 3,300 dolphins killed in the eastern tropical Pacific. That is down 99 percent from what it was. That is using this particular technique. Why do we have in our bill a maximum, maximum, of 5,000 dolphins killed? That is because there will be more fishers in the fishery, so we need to have some reasonable number. Five thousand dolphins killed is biologically insignificant as assessed by some of the best scientists in the world. One of them is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a woman named Elizabeth Edwards, who says that is biologically insignificant. We understand that. We do not accept the 5,000 number. We will continue to work toward zero. Here is what Dr. Edwards says about the study, that the process that we are trying to get into law stresses dolphins to the degree that it harms them. She says, ``In particular the 5 reviewers were unanimous in their opinion that the study failed to confirm the stated conclusion that dolphins were experiencing acute continuous stress.'' So I wanted to dismiss that accusation that the encirclement, where you allow the dolphins to get out, which is what we are doing, causes stress that harms the dolphin. There is no evidence to that effect. The Center for Marine Conservation, one of our more sophisticated, respected environmental groups around the country, says arguably stress is not found to lead to species decline, the stress that they experience in this encirclement. And understand, we do not want to encircle dolphins. This is not the last step in this process. This international agreement does not end the way we catch tuna fish. This international agreement by the United States, by the environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Center for Marine Conservation, we want to continue to use the expertise of the United States to find ways to ensure the sustainability of the marine ecosystem and reduce dolphin kills to zero and some day hopefully end encirclement entirely. But we cannot do it alone. We need this international agreement. I want to point out one other thing. IATTC is showing an increase in dolphin population. Now, the comment that we are importing tuna fish for the purpose of doing something for the benefit of Mexico or Mexican fishermen, and we are not concerned about the death of dolphins. Well, I want to say something. In our bill, on every single boat there will be, there must be, observers in order to sell that tuna fish into the United States. So we will know, however unfortunate it might be, every single dolphin death. And we will know that because we have observers on board those boats. Since we have observers on those boats, we recognize in the past year there has been 3,300 dolphin deaths, but we know that, and we are trying to reduce that. Now, the present regime, before this legislation goes into effect, we are getting much of our tuna fish, if not most of our tuna fish, from the western tropical Pacific, where there are no observers on those boats, and it is fundamentally understood. It is fundamentally understood that from 10,000 to 40,000 dolphins are killed a year. We have no control over that. Do we want to have dolphin kills without anybody to observe those dolphin deaths and then quite likely import that tuna, can it in the United States, and then label it dolphin safe? I would much rather have an understanding as to the number of dolphin deaths and a continuous effort to reduce those dolphin deaths. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to oppose the Miller-Studds amendment and to support the legislation. It is an international agreement of very positive proportions so that we can continue down the road as a planet, as a world population that is continuing to increase to have some sense of understanding together as a global community to sustain the limited resources that are essential for the food of this planet.

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit for the Record a letter supporting this legislation from the Maritime Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the Vice President of the United States that supports this legislation, and a list of scientists that had concern about the tuna-dolphin issue. I would like to submit these for the Record. Very quickly, the gentleman from American Samoa said we were pressured into this legislation by foreign powers. I want to say that we were pressured into this legislation by the marine ecosystem that needs our help in managing those scarce resources. The ancient Polynesians had values that we should reflect today. The world is much different today than it was during the ancient Polynesians' courageous efforts across the high seas. We want to retain the values of the ancient Polynesians. That is why we are trying to manage the ecosystem on an international basis. The last point, 10,000 to 40,000 dolphins are killed now in the western tropical Pacific. We are trying to eliminate that down to zero with our legislation. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the correspondence to which I referred: [From the Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO] H.R. 2823 Would Give U.S. Tuna Industry a Level Playing Field Shortly the House of Representatives will take up H.R. 2823, the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act of 1996, legislation designed to provide a level playing field for the American tuna fishing industry. The Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO (MTD), representing affiliates that include fishermen and tuna cannery workers among their ranks, urges Congress to adopt this measure without amendment. American tuna fishermen have been disadvantaged by amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act. Since 1992, they have been singularly barred from encircling dolphins during tuna harvesting. This restriction has had the paradoxical effect of forcing off the high seas American boats and crews, who were responsible for developing dolphin saving techniques in the harvesting process. As a result, many American-flag tuna vessels have been sold and placed under convenience registries with less experienced foreign crews that don't share similar environmental concerns. Domestic tuna canneries have been denied sufficient product to operate economically and have experienced periodic shutdowns. Enactment of H.R. 2823 would help generate conditions conducive to increased participation of American tuna vessels in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. It also provides adequate supplies of quality tuna to enable domestic tuna canneries in California and Puerto Rico to operate full-time. In the process, hundreds of American fishing and related canning jobs will be restored and maintained. The bill, introduced by Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, also provides strong environmental benefits that underscore longtime congressional interest in eliminating dolphin mortality resulting from tuna harvesting. H.R. 2823 accomplishes this goal through an international regime for protecting dolphins, including observers and other monitoring, verification and tracking of catch, research and enforcement. Moreover, the bill requires reductions in the allowable dolphin mortality rate to a level that guarantees recovery of dolphin stocks. The act also calls for shipboard observers to be responsible for monitoring bycatch of all species, with the goal of reducing total bycatch. On balance, H.R. 2823 creates an environment that will enhance opportunities for American tuna industry workers, while enhancing international efforts to make tuna harvesting safe for dolphin and other fish species. The MTD urges your support for this legislation.

Mr. GILCHREST

Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill just passed.