[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 37 (Friday, March 7, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SUPPORT FOR NATIONAL AQUATIC INVASIVE SPECIES ACT AND AQUATIC INVASIVE 
                          SPECIES RESEARCH ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN M. McHUGH

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 6, 2003

  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I wish to express my support for the 
National Aquatic Invasive Species Act and the Aquatic Invasive Species 
Research Act that was reintroduced March 5, 2003. I want to first thank 
my colleagues, Mr. Ehlers and Mr. Gilchrest, for all of the hard work, 
initiative, and time that they and their staffs have invested in this 
much needed legislation.
  My district in Upstate New York is impacted, environmentally, 
economically, and socially, by the health and future viability of the 
Great Lakes. I know that New York State is only one of many states that 
directly feel the negative effects of invasive species. Aquatic 
invasive species are destroying the environment of the Great Lakes, 
damaging the Great Lakes fisheries, and costing taxpayers an estimated 
$138 billion annually. It is important that we set interim standards 
for balanced water treatment systems so that we can control and see a 
significant decline in the increasing threat posed by aquatic invasive 
species to our aquatic ecosystems and natural resources.
  These two pieces of comprehensive legislation would reduce the 
introduction of aquatic invasive species from ships and from other 
pathways through a variety of standards, research, and management 
programs. They complement one another in a variety of meaningful ways 
and I am hopeful that this body will be committed to moving these 
important pieces of legislation through the legislative process so that 
we, as a Congress, can properly address this problem.
  Aquatic invasive species is one of many reasons I have long stood in 
opposition to the Great Lakes Navigation System Review study that was 
recently funded in the Fiscal Year 2003 Energy and Water Development 
Appropriations bill. If expansion and dredging of the St. Lawrence 
Seaway were to occur, we would inevitably see the introduction of and 
exponential increase of aquatic invasive species. The reasons I voice 
my support today of the National Aquatic Invasive Species Act and the 
Aquatic Invasive Species Research are consistent and unwavering with 
the stand I have taken long before today on this incredibly important 
issue. I am committed to the discovery of methods, and to fully funding 
those methods, that would work to decrease, and I hope, one day, 
eradicate, invasive species of all kinds in the waters of our region.

                          ____________________