[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 27, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H4666-H4667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SALMON FISHING SEASON A DISASTER

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to replace Mr. 
Larson.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from Oregon 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, today I had an extraordinary meeting with 
the head of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Mr. 
Lautenbacher, and his deputy, Mr. Hogarth. They met with six Members of 
Congress representing the west coast fishers in the United States, 
particularly from Oregon down into California.
  These gentlemen met with us so we could ask them to ask, in all 
sincerity, when they are going to declare the salmon fishing season, 
which has been essentially closed by their agency, a disaster. Their 
answer was: never. Or maybe next year.
  It was an extraordinary meeting. They said that because they allowed 
an extraordinarily limited season, that is, a fisherman can go out and 
catch up to 75 salmon, which won't quite pay for the fuel to leave the 
dock, on a few occasions during the year, that they can't anticipate 
whether or not it will be a disaster for those folks.
  Now, the deputy was a little more honest, and he admitted that it was 
even worse than they thought. No one is fishing. No one is going out 
with fuel prices like this, and, in fact, there is virtually no 
activity. But they thought that people might go out. Maybe the price of 
fish will go way up. I said, to what, a hundred dollars a pound? What 
are we talking about? What would induce people to go out into the ocean 
and catch 75 salmon, a commercial fishing boat? They couldn't answer 
that.
  So we said, your regional counsel recommended a disaster declaration, 
and you sent it back. When will you process that? They said, oh, well, 
we have already sent it back again. We said, why did you send it back? 
They said, well, because they made a recommendation of a disaster.
  The people who manage this agency in the region recognized the 
disaster. They recommended a disaster declaration to the national 
bureaucrats. The national bureaucrats said, no, you can't do that. They 
sent it back. They had to strip out their recommendation and then they 
sent it back and they said, okay.
  So when are you going to process all the facts on which they made 
that determination? They said, not until February. Well, why not until 
next February? Because people might go out and catch 75 fish, and that 
might make a difference in whether or not there is a disaster.
  It is extraordinary tortured logic. You can't get there from here. So 
we said, how about you just issue the declaration of a disaster. No, 
their lawyers say they can't do that. I asked to see the legal opinion. 
They said, no, they couldn't show me the legal opinion; that they 
couldn't do that.
  We asked to see the recommendation from the regional people about the 
disaster, and they said, no, you can't have that. You are only Members 
of Congress representing these people. You can't have those documents 
because we haven't made a decision yet. When are you going to make a 
decision? When it is too late for the fishers and their families. When 
they have already gone bankrupt. Whey they have already lost their 
boats. That is next winter when they might get around to making a 
decision about this year's season.
  So, then, I said, okay, how about this: why don't you just close down 
this lame season that you have created, this 75-fish limit on a few 
days; just close it down, declare a disaster, and get some assistance 
to the fishers? They said, oh, no, they couldn't do that because they 
have already made a decision that is based on certain documents, and 
they couldn't go back on that. I said, just declare an emergency. No, 
they are not going to do that.

                              {time}  2245

  They are getting orders from somewhere higher up in this 
administration that is embarrassed, embarrassed about the politics, 
embarrassed that 4 years ago, to make hay in an election year, they 
diverted water from irrigation, from the river to irrigation. They got 
headlines. They made great political hay with us with it. Now if they 
declare a disaster on the returning salmon, the class of that year, 
they are essentially admitting that they impacted that.

[[Page H4667]]

  In fact, in the Senate, they have already said that this is not a 
natural disaster. The Parliamentarian there ruled against emergency 
assistance by the junior Senator from Oregon, because he said this was 
not a natural disaster; it is manmade. The Bush Administration made 
this disaster through their mismanagement of the resources in that 
region.
  So now we have the agency saying they are not going to declare a 
disaster. I think they are just trying to put the small fishers out of 
business. What the end game is, I am not sure. Maybe giant aquaculture. 
Who knows? But the point is they are refusing, despite the request of 
the Governor of Oregon, the Governor of California, the Senators from 
Oregon, the Senators from California, a large number of Representatives 
from Oregon and California, we have all requested a disaster 
declaration, and the White House is silent, and the bureaucrats say 
``no.''

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