Don Young

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Blute].

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Roberts]. (Mr. ROBERTS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman]. (Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Boehlert].

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Weller]. (Mr. WELLER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California [Mr. McKeon]. (Mr. McKEON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Martini], who has done an excellent job.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that the previous speaker remember one thing, that there is a chairman, and he may not be recognized the next time in the committee. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Goss].

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Regula], chairman of the Subcommittee on Interior of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. REGULA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Kelly]. (Mrs. KELLY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth], a member of the committee. (Mr. HAYWORTH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Utah [Mr. Hansen]. (Mr. HANSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, thank you for the chance to bring to the floor the biggest and most important parks and public lands package since 1978. In addition to provisions for protection of some of the most important natural landmarks, historic places and landscapes in the country, it includes a landmark bipartisan effort led by Representative Bill Baker to protect the California Bay-Delta, a priority for both sides of the aisle. This package is chock full of solutions to local problems which have been brought to the attention of the committee by individual Members of the House or the other body. Before a brief outline of the bills' many fine points, I am compelled to give a short history of how we arrived at such a massive package at this point in the session. Frankly, it was a few Members of the other body's fault. Though the Resource Committee has sent scores of individual bills to the Senate, holds by certain Members on these measures stopped the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources from moving individual or even small groups of bills for months. This hostage taking became so bad that when a large package of bills was finally freed in that body and attached to a Presidio bill we sent them, we made a conscious decision to try to place many of the bills stuck over there in this package. They followed suit. As a result, many items were considered through this process, and some remain while others were dropped. I believe we have achieved a package which will benefit many Members, States and people throughout the Nation. Mr. Speaker, I will also say I have Members that have been disappointed, such as myself, because I think this administration deals with a forked tongue. Every time we reach an agreement, they would move the goalposts. I am not sure, maybe my good friend, the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller], knows we reached an agreement, and already the White House has tried to undo it. Already there are phone calls being made from the White _______________________________________________________________________

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4236) to provide for the administration of certain Presidio properties at minimal cost to the Federal taxpayer, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I want to compliment the gentleman and the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy], for this legislation. I strongly support H.R. 3219. I can suggest as one who has lived, worked and loved with the American natives in Alaska, I have watched the present program in housing not work. We have had housings in Alaska that were under Government control that had such audacity as to say you could not put a storm porch in Nome, AK, on federally built housing because it did not meet their code or did not meet their design. I do not know how many have been to Nome, AK, but the wind blows about 84 miles an hour off the Bering Sea. It is an example to take into consideration of the native people up there and their needs or their designees and what should or should not be done. I think there is another example of what we can do with the diminishing dollars we have and get a better result of what we are trying to accomplish. That is provide housing to the American natives. I hope some of you have an opportunity to go into some of the areas with the American natives and see some of the poor housing that does exist today. Many of you have seen pictures on TV about the Third World countries. We have housing actually under Government control, probably some of the most deplorable housing that exists in the United States today on not only the reservations but off the reservations such as in Alaska and the Alaska Natives. The need is well and overwhelming. I think this legislation, in fact I know this legislation, is an improvement, and I hope that it will solve many of the housing problems that the American natives have faced over the years. It is wrong in our Nation when we have a trust responsibility to American natives that they have not had the flexibility that this bill provides, so I want to compliment the authors and the people that have worked on this legislation, as I do think they have addressed the issues very well in this legislation. And this will work; we will have much better housing.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, sustainable development is a catch phrase that is heard a lot in Washington, DC, these days. This is a resource management concept which recognizes that renewable resources can be harvested without endangering long-term survival of the resource. While the concept is gaining support in this country and in Congress, there are still those who resist the sustainable harvest of some of our resources. Another concept discussed a lot in management debates is wise-use. This concept is closely related to the idea of sustainable development. Proponents of the wise-use movement argue that resources of a nation can and should be used for the benefit of the nation and its people. In order for our renewable natural resources to be managed for long- term sustainability, it is important to have three things: Good data, good science to interpret the data for making sound decisions, and good management and enforcement. Without any of these three, the long-term viability of the resource may be compromised. The U.S. Congress is currently working to reauthorize the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the law which governs domestic fisheries. It is important, not only for the health of the resource, but also for the health of the commercial fishing industry and coastal fishing communities, to manage the Nation's fishery resources for the long term. In recent years, the United States has experienced resource depletions in some fisheries, the most recent and most reported on is the situation with New England groundfish stocks. The cause of this resource depletion may be a number of things including loss of habitat, overfishing, increased predation, or changes in temperature and climate. Fishery resources are vitally important to many regions of the country and the protection oft he stocks is important to keeping many coastal communities alive. The Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act tries to maintain the balance of allowing the sustained harvest of our fishery resources as well as protecting the stocks from overfishing. These concepts are transferrable to other renewable natural resources; however, other domestic resource laws do not always recognize that development and conservation can coexist. In the United States, bowhead whales are harvested by Alaskan Natives for subsistence purposes at a sustainable level. Care is taken to determine the population of the stocks being harvested, the level of acceptable harvest is carefully determined, and rigorous monitoring and enforcement measures are followed. The villages which participate in the hunt for the bowhead must and do continue to remain concerned about the long-term health of the stocks and treat the resource with the respect it requires. This combination of good data, careful scientific use of the data, and rigorous monitoring have allowed the sustainable harvest for subsistence purposes for these Alaskan Natives in the same manner that has allowed fishermen to harvest fishery resources in most areas of the country without harming the long-term health of the resource. The United States is working internationally to ensure the sustained development of marine fishery resources. An International Conference on the Sustainable Contribution of Fisheries to Food Security was held December 4-9, 1995 in Kyoto, Japan. The international delegates of this conference promoted the enhancement of subregional and regional cooperation in establishing conversation and management measures to protect marine fishery resources. This conference followed up on concerns and ideas discussed at the 27th session of the Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] held in November 1993 and detailed in the U.N. Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in December 1995. The sustainable development of fishery resources will again be discussed this coming November at the world food summit which is being convened by the FAO of the United Nations. The marine fishery resources of the United States and the world will obtain the protections they need when the United States and the international community work together to develop conservation and management measures that allow marine fishery resources to be harvested at a sustainable levels. Moreover, these sustainable harvest levels will also sustain the livelihoods of those individual dependent on marine fishery resources.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. 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 S. 39, the bill just considered.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution just agreed to.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska

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

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I was sitting here listening to the gentleman from Michigan, the dean of the House [Mr. Dingell], give his compliments for my good friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts, and I cannot echo those words enough. I can assure him as one that has been the author and the worker of the Magnuson Act, and the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller], I want them both to be aware that I have not left this subject. As I mentioned, we have reviewed this three times. I will cherish the advice that the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Studds] can give me on this issue as he goes into another life. We have modern communications today, far exceed that which we had in the past. As a friend, I expect him to keep in contact with me on issues that he thinks are important to the sea. The gentleman from California himself brought up some issues that I believe very strongly in. I happen to think that the issuance of an IDQ, or IFQ, and then creating a great value of it, to be sold for wealth, is very wrong, and it is wrong to accumulate a massive amount, creating a monopoly. We are going to continue to address those issues as the future unfolds as far as our seas go. I would like to say, Mr. Speaker, to my friends in the House, I would like to extend our interest in the oceans beyond the 200 miles. We sometimes concentrate, because fishermen vote and fishermen are very vocal and they are probably the hardest group in the world to represent, but I would like to extend our interest concerning what effect is going on beyond the 200 miles. Because the key to our survival in this Nation today and all nations in this world is a healthy, providing ocean. If it is unhealthy, it does not provide. If it does not provide, I do not think any nation can survive. Someone who may live in the middle of our great Nation or the middle of Russia or the middle of India or the middle of China may say, what has that got to do with me? All of our food cycle chain and all of our wealth eventually is created from the sea. So I am going to suggest in the future, if I have anything to do with it, with the gentleman from California [Mr. Miller], that we extend not only beyond the 200 miles, I mean brought within the 200 miles, to be beyond the 200 miles, internationally trying to come to grips with, are the seas healthy, are the species healthy, have we done something wrong, have the death curtains been eliminated, what should we be doing, not impinging upon people's rights but how do we prevail in maintaining a healthy sea. Mr. Speaker, again, in closing, I can suggest that those who have worked with me over the years on these issues, the ocean, I deeply appreciate their friendship and especially their dedication. The staffs that have been working with the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Studds] are exceptionally good. We will continue to overview and to watch the great oceans that surround our shores.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that each side have 5 additional minutes.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Gilchrest].

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Maine [Mr. Longley], a great committee member.

Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, may I suggest respectfully, I have great respect for the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Studds], and his efforts in the fisheries field. As many times as he has mentioned the subject, I think this bill will probably get that name through attrition more than anything else. But I will say again that the gentleman from Massachusetts, it may be the last time he works on this floor on this type of legislation, and that I do thank him for his love for the sea and the fishermen he has served with, and the sense that he and I had a great deal in common with regard to the oceans. I believe we have worked well. I cannot agree with him more about the actions of the Senate. I will defend my senior Senator. We worked on the bill, and of course they were threatened with, you know, holds and blocks, et cetera. This is not what I would have liked to have done, but it is the best thing we can do for our oceans today. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.