[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 131 (Friday, September 26, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND STATE, THE JUDICIARY, AND RELATED 
                   AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1998

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 25, 1997

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2267) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and 
     State, the Judiciary, and related agencies for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 1998, and for other purposes:

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I join my colleagues from 
North Carolina and Maryland in strong support of the amendment to 
provide $3 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration to respond to the Pfiesteria threat on the east coast of 
the United States. I am a cosponsor of this amendment because we in 
North Carolina have felt the effects of Pfiesteria piscicida for a 
number of years, through massive fish kills in the Albemarle-Pamlico 
Estuarine System and through reports of strange health effects from 
people who have been in and near affected waters, including skin 
lesions, respiratory impairment, and memory loss. Although there has 
been some Federal role in supporting research on Pfiesteria and 
Pfiesteria-like dinoflagellates in the past, the recent fish kills and 
reported human health effects in Virginia and Maryland related to 
Pfiesteria, and further reports of the presence of the toxic form of 
Pfiesteria from Delaware all the way to Florida, call for a broader 
role by the Federal Government in what is showing itself to be a 
regional environmental and human health problem.
  Through its new, interagency Ecohab Research Program, the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has the capacity to play an 
essential coordinating role in research efforts designed to uncover the 
ecological dynamics which favor the transformation of Pfiesteria into 
its toxic form. This amendment will also provide funding to affected 
States to initiate and extend essential efforts to monitor for 
Pfiesteria and similar organisms. Monitoring will allow researchers to 
quickly respond to outbreaks of Pfiesteria in its toxic form and gather 
the data which is necessary to accelerate our progress in learning more 
about the causes and effects of this organism.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer] for taking 
the lead on this important issue and for his part in initiating this 
important amendment. I appreciate my colleagues' support for this 
amendment for a greater Federal role in research related to Pfiesteria.

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