[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 96 (Thursday, June 24, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5440-S5441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE (for herself, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Whitehouse, Ms. 
        Collins, Mrs. Shaheen, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Kerry, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. 
        Reed, Mr. Barrasso, and Mr. Begich):
  S. 3528. A bill to promote coastal jobs creation, promote sustainable 
fisheries and fishing communities, revitalize waterfronts, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Coastal Jobs 
Creation Act of 2010. This bill would establish a grant program within 
the Department of Commerce to enhance employment opportunities for 
coastal communities by increasing support for cooperative research 
programs, revitalization of coastal infrastructure, and stewardship of 
coastal and marine resources. As Ranking Member of the Senate 
Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, and as 
a Senator from a State which relies heavily on its coastal region as an 
economic driver, I am acutely aware of the hardships that have been 
visited on these areas in recent years.
  I particularly want to thank my lead cosponsor on this key piece of 
legislation, Senator Lautenberg. Clearly, his home State of New Jersey 
shares many of the same issues we face in Maine when it comes to 
ensuring the vitality of our historic fishing and coastal industries, 
and I greatly appreciate his support of this initiative. I also want to 
thank the bill's additional cosponsors, Senators Whitehouse, Collins, 
Shaheen, Boxer, Kerry, and Cantwell, for their vital contributions.
  As our Nation struggles to recover from the ongoing recession, it is 
critical that we do all we can to create employment opportunities. I 
have said it before, and I will say it again: the jobless recovery that 
our Nation is currently experiencing is not a true economic recovery. 
While the most recent unemployment figures may have shown a decline 
from 9.9 to 9.7 percent--of course, welcome news--the private sector is 
not creating jobs. Indeed, there were 411,000 temporary Census 
employees hired in May, as opposed to the 41,000 new jobs in the 
private sector. This does not bode well for our future

[[Page S5441]]

economic health, and does not instill confidence in our fragile 
economy.
  Ultimately, what affects our coastal economy drives our Nation's 
economy. More than 75 percent of growth in this country from 1997 to 
2007, whether measured in population, jobs, or GDP, occurred in coastal 
States, and more than half of U.S. citizens live in coastal 
communities. As the Nation's economy has struggled through the ongoing 
recession, maritime industries have experienced more than their share 
of hardship. This has been compounded in the fishing industry by 
regulatory changes mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery 
Conservation and Management Act which we reauthorized in 2006. The law 
now requires strict, science-based annual catch limits to be imposed in 
all fisheries by 2011. While we expect these changes will ultimately be 
beneficial to the health of the fish stocks, they have dire economic 
implications today.
  On April 18, 2010, Bumble Bee Foods shuttered the last sardine 
cannery in the United States, which had been located in Prospect 
Harbor, Maine. This closure can be attributed to a single cause: the 
National Marine Fisheries Service's decision to slash the catch limit 
for herring by 38 percent for 2010, meaning there were not enough fish 
available to supply the plant. Scientists did not recommend this 
reduction because herring is overfished--it is not--but rather because 
they did not have the data to provide sufficient confidence in the 
stock assessment. In addition to impacts on the herring and lobster 
fisheries, this lack of data has directly resulted in a century-old 
fish processing plant closing its doors, costing an economically 
depressed community 130 jobs and spelling the end of an entire industry 
in the United States. If the law's new mandates are to be effective, 
they will require an infusion of better scientific data. The grant 
program authorized in this legislation will lead to more cooperative 
research to improve fishery-dependent data and increase employment 
opportunities for fishermen by involving them in the research process.
  An additional concern this bill would help alleviate is the rapid 
decline in availability of working waterfront property. As Americans 
move to the coast in greater numbers, the demand for waterfront 
property increases, boosting prices and raising the tax burdens on 
waterfront property owners. According to a report by Maine Sea Grant 
and the Island Institute, a non-profit advocacy group, of the more than 
5,300 miles of Maine's coastline, just 20 miles remain in use as 
working waterfront property--less than half of one percent of the 
potential area. This bill would authorize grants to recapitalize 
working waterfront property to stem the loss of this vital 
infrastructure without which our coastal industries will simply vanish.
  If enacted, this critical legislation would greatly enhance the 
health and vitality of our Nation's coastal communities, and help put 
our Nation on a path to a true economic recovery, driven by small 
businesses and private sector job creation. Once again, I thank Senator 
Lautenberg, and all of my cosponsors again for their efforts in 
developing this vital legislation.
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