Jim Saxton

Mr. SAXTON

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to exclude extraneous material therein on H.R. 4318, as amended.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4318) to establish the Red River National Wildlife Refuge, as amended.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4318 was introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery). It will establish the Red River National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana. The Red River Valley is part of a historic migratory corridor that is used by over 350 different species of birds. These species include migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, and neotropical migratory songbirds. It is part of the Mid-Continent Flyway region that stretches as far north as the Arctic Circle and as far south as Tierra del Fuego, South America. Under the terms of the bill, the Secretary of Interior is provided with the authority to acquire up to 50,000 acres of land, water and other interests for inclusion in the refuge. I fully expect that all private land acquired by the Red River Refuge will be purchased from willing sellers. Mr. Speaker, I compliment the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery) for his tireless leadership on behalf of this legislation. The gentleman has worked extremely closely with local, State, and Federal officials to make the Red River National Wildlife Refuge a reality. I obviously urge an aye vote on 4318. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SAXTON

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4840) to reauthorize the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act, as amended.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers; but I would just like to say in conclusion, I would like to thank the gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega) for his cooperation. It makes one feel very good to have the kind of bipartisan cooperation that we have had on this and many other bills in our subcommittee. So I thank the gentleman for his cooperation. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 4840.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4840 reauthorizes the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Management Act through fiscal year 2005. This bill will extend the successful Federal-State fishery management partnership with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commission, Mr. Speaker, is made up of representatives from each of the Atlantic coastal States. Under the Act, the Federal Government can implement a moratorium on fishing in State waters if States do not comply with the plans written by the commission. The commission's greatest success is notable in the recovery of the Atlantic striped bass, Mr. Speaker. The striped bass suffered a population crash in the late 1970s for a number of reasons, including over-fishing. Today, for fishermen in the mid-Atlantic region, including those in Ocean County, New Jersey, which is part of the district I am privileged to represent and all along Long Beach Island, this comeback has resulted in the greatest fishing on the East Coast. Mr. Speaker, as a matter of fact, just a short time ago, last week, I had a nice group of folks join me on a 10-mile beach walk; and as we walked up the beach on Long Beach Island, there were surf fishermen after surf fishermen in quest of the Atlantic striped bass and, I might add, with some success. This legislation simply authorizes $10 million a year to carry out the Atlantic coastal fisheries program to enable this striped bass program and others to move forward. The bill also allows appropriated funds to be used to carry out a fisheries statistics program which supports Atlantic coastal States fishery management plans. I believe this legislation is noncontroversial, and I would urge everyone to vote aye. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SAXTON

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I again commend the gentleman for bringing this very good and important legislation to the floor.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, while the gentleman was speaking, I thought back of all the efforts that we have been involved in together, Members of both parties, in trying to address one of the issues that the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood) just spoke of that namely the ocean is not the kind of expanse that can absorb our wastes for time unlimited. And during the time that we have been in the Congress, we have stopped ocean sludge dumping. We have been successful in passing the act to make sure that people do not dump medical waste in the ocean, which was so important to my district and the beaches that I know the gentleman visits in the summertime. We have been successful in making sure that chemical dumping is taken care of in ways outside the ocean. There is one burning issue off the coast of New Jersey that the gentleman and I love very much, that is the shore that we love very much, and that is that this administration is currently issuing permits to dump contaminated dredge spoils off Sandy Hook. And these are the kinds of nonthinking, bad ideas that we need to avoid. The dumping of dredge spoils with contaminants such as mercury and lead and PCBs and other things that are poisonous to the human body and to the creatures that live in the ocean is something that we need to pay a lot more of attention to. So while we have had some successes, we have a long way to go. And this bill creating an awareness and a study, a further study of technologies about what we can do and what we should not do and what we cannot do to the ocean environment, is extremely important.

Mr. SAXTON. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2090) to direct the Secretary of Commerce to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to establish the Coordinated Oceanographic Program Advisory Panel to report to the Congress on the feasibility and social value of a coordinated oceanography program, as amended.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 2090.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2090 requires the Secretary of Commerce to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to establish a Coordinated Oceanographic Program Advisory Panel. The Panel will submit a report to Congress on the feasibility and social value of a coordinated international oceanography program. Recent technical advances have given us the ability to fully explore the world's oceans. As an example, in the district that I am privileged to represent, a project in Tuckerton, New Jersey, called the Long-term Ecological Observatory, better known to us at home as FEO-15, measures ocean processes along the New Jersey coast and in Little Egg Harbor and Barnegat Bay. This legislation will enhance programs just like FEO-15 for their success. While there have been many tremendous advances in oceanography technology over the past 15 years, the United States does not have yet a comprehensive plan for determining what data needs to be collected or for integrating that data into a usable system. This bill, H.R. 2090, is a positive step in moving this technology forward in an efficient way; and I urge support of the exploration. And I might say at this point, Mr. Speaker, that I congratulate the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood) for leading us to the floor with this very important piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate very much the support of my friend from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega). I would just like to comment, relative to his concerns on duplication, obviously the Oceans Act that we passed here a short time ago is a very important act because it essentially provides for an opportunity to take a look at how United States ocean policy is developed and carried out. Obviously, the Stratton Commission that was created in the late 1960s and reported to the Congress in 1969 provided an opportunity for us to make some changes and establish a great organization known as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This bill differs in two ways. Number one, it is international in scope, which gives us the opportunity to cooperate with, exchange information with, extract cooperative efforts from our friends around the world who are also engaged in various types of oceanography studies and the development of technology. I think that many of our friends around the world recognize, as we do, that there is a need for better ocean stewardship, and to the extent that we can cooperate with them through programs like the one that we are creating or moving to create here today will be, I think, a great advantage. Secondly, the Oceans Act takes a broad look at United States ocean policy, domestic policy. This act is a very narrow focus on technology, and so I think that is an important distinction and one that mitigates for the important passage of this bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood).

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me just say that the gentleman's help is very much appreciated. We need to understand issues like ocean dumping and this bill provides the forum in which we can look at the technology so that we can better understand. I thought we understood because we stopped dumping ocean sludge, sewage sludge in the ocean. We stopped dumping chemicals in the ocean, but we still have this burning problem of dumping contaminated dredge spoils in the ocean. It is a practice which is unwarranted, and this bill, hopefully, will provide an opportunity for the administration to understand that this is bad policy.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. SAXTON

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to pay tribute to a great environmentalist, a dedicated citizen, and a good friend. John Spodofora has been a member of the Stafford Township Council since 1988, serving as the esteemed Chairman of the Environmental Commission. Under his leadership, Stafford Township has become the most recognized areas in our country for its environmental efforts. No doubt this is due in great part to the tremendous contributions John has made to help ensure Stafford Township is kept environmentally sound. On many occasions, John's efforts have resulted in prestigious awards for his community. For eleven consecutive years, Stafford Township has received the ``National Tree City USA Award'' from the National Arbor Day Foundation. In fact, Stafford County also received the ``National Arbor Day Foundation Growth Award'', which is the highest designation a Tree City can achieve. The Township was a recipient of this award for nine consecutive years. No other community in the United States has won this award more than Stafford Township, Other awards Stafford Township has received under John Spodofora's leadership include the ``Association of New Jersey Environmental Commission's First Place Envirom-nental Achievement Award'' (1987- 1991), the ``National Groundwater Guardian Award'' (1994-2000), the ``New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Conservation Award'' (1993-1994), the ``National Arbor Day Foundation Special Merit Award'' (2000), the ``National Renew America Conservation Award'' (1991-1995), First Place ``Quality New Jersey Award'' for improvements to beach and water quality (1992), NJDEP First Place ``Green Community Achievement Award'' (1994), National ``Take Pride in America Aware'' (1994), Environmental Protection Agency's ``First Place National Award of Excellence'' (1994), and the NJDEP ``New Jersey Environmental Excellence Award'' for clean and plentiful water (2000). On many occasions, John has been personally recognized for his environmental innovations and efforts towards making the Stafford community a better one. In fact, one of my proudest moments was nominating John for the ``National Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Award'' back in 1990. President George Bush presented this award to John during a special ceremony at the White House. Throughout my time in public office, few people have impressed me more than John. His dedication to the preservation of our natural habitat is unmatched. In many ways, John's efforts have made Stafford Township a better place to live today. Even more importantly, his environmental contributions will have a lasting impact on this community for years to come. Future generations will be surrounded by a beautiful and bountiful natural habitat thanks to John. He has blessed us with the gift of a healthy and safe environment that our children and grandchildren will enjoy for many, many years. I strongly commend John for all he has done for Stafford Township and am honored to pay him tribute.

Mr. SAXTON

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4320, the Great Ape Conservation Act, and I compliment the author. Today, great apes face multiple threats to their very survival. These include habitat destruction, civil wars, and an explosion in the devastating illegal hunting of apes for the commercial enterprise known as bushmeat trade. Unless immediate steps are taken, these magnificent animals will continue their slide toward extinction. We must not allow that to occur. This legislation would continue the successful partnership established by the African Elephant Conservation Act by creating the Great Ape Conservation Fund, which would make grant money available to assist range state governments and nongovernmental organizations involved in the front-line battles to protect great apes. These monies will complement established programs and, at the same time, leverage additional financial support from other organizations. Mr. Speaker, great apes--defined as gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gibbons--are listed both as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and Appendix I under CITES. In fact, one subspecies of gorilla--the mountain gorilla--made famous by the movie, ``Gorillas in the Mist,'' has been decimated to less than 700 animals, making it more endangered than the giant panda. These grand animals--with whom we share 98 percent of our genetic material--deserve our help. This bill is supported by the administration and by a diverse group of conservation leaders, including the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, and many other organizations. H.R. 4320 is noncontroversial and should be supported by all Members. I urge an ``aye'' vote on this important conservation legislation.

Mr. SAXTON

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 1651) to amend the Fishermen's Protective Act of 1967 to extend the period during which reimbursement may be provided to owners of United States fishing vessels for costs incurred when such a vessel is seized and detained by a foreign country, and for other purposes.

Mr. SAXTON. 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 therein on H.R. 1651.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1651, the Fishermen's Protective Act Amendments of 1999. This bill makes a number of conservation and management improvements to several important fisheries laws. Title I allows fishermen to be reimbursed if their vessel is illegally detained or seized by foreign countries. Title II establishes a panel to advise the Secretaries of State and Interior on Yukon River salmon issues in Alaska. This section will provide much needed support in the conservation and management of Yukon River salmon. Title III authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to acquire, purchase, lease, lease-purchase or charter and equip up to six fishery survey vessels. These vessels are one of the most important fishery management tools available to the Federal scientists. They allow for the collection of much-needed scientific data and to manage our Nation's fisheries. Finally, the last title addresses the use of spotter aircraft in the New England-based Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery. This section was added in the other body which responded to concerns over use of planes which have accelerated the catch rates and closures in the general and harpoon categories. Mr. Speaker, this is a well thought out, well drafted bill, and I urge an ``aye'' vote. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SAXTON

Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 2327) to establish a Commission on Ocean Policy, and for other purposes.