[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 22 (Monday, February 5, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H753-H755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXEMPTION OF EXPORTATION OF CERTAIN ECHINODERMS FROM PERMISSION AND
LICENSING REQUIREMENTS
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 2504) to ensure fair treatment in licensing requirements for the
export of certain echinoderms.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2504
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. EXEMPTION OF EXPORTATION OF CERTAIN ECHINODERMS
FROM PERMISSION AND LICENSING REQUIREMENTS.
(a) Exemption.--Not later than 30 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Director of the United States
Fish and Wildlife Service shall amend section 14.92 of title
50, Code of Federal Regulations, to clarify that--
(1) fish or wildlife described in subsection (b) are
fishery products exempt from the export permission
requirements of section 9(d)(1) of the Endangered Species Act
of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1538(d)(1)); and
(2) any person may engage in business as an exporter of
such fish or wildlife without procuring permission under such
section of that Act or an export license under subpart I of
part 14 of such title.
(b) Covered Fish or Wildlife.--The fish or wildlife
referred to in subsection (a) are members of the phylum
Echinodermata that are commonly known as sea urchins and sea
cucumbers, including products thereof, that--
(1) do not require a permit under part 16, 17, or 23 of
title 50, Code of Federal Regulations;
(2) are harvested in waters under the jurisdiction of the
United States or are processed in the United States; and
(3) are--
(A) exported for purposes of human or animal consumption;
or
(B) taken in waters under the jurisdiction of the United
States or on the high seas for recreational purposes.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Arizona (Mr. Gosar) and the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Hanabusa) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona.
General Leave
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Arizona?
There was no objection.
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2504, introduced by my Maine colleagues, Chellie
Pingree and Bruce Poliquin, is a bipartisan effort to right a
bipartisan wrong. In regulations created by an outgoing George W. Bush
administration and carried on by administrations since, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service has imposed unnecessary fees and duplicative and
costly inspection requirements on what was once a growing industry that
aims to export niche seafood to overseas markets.
Even the National Marine Fisheries Service, a bastion of Federal
regulatory growth, disagrees with its sister agency on this matter. The
stories of spoiled food shipments, loss of jobs, and bureaucratic
indifference embody the arrogance of an agency gone wild. This bill
preserves and promotes jobs as a counter.
I will include in the Record an exchange of letters with Chairman
Royce of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who also received a referral of
this bill. I thank him for his cooperation in allowing this bill to go
forward today.
Again, I commend our two Maine colleagues for working on a bipartisan
basis to address this matter. I urge adoption of this commonsense
measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Natural Resources,
Washington, DC, January 8, 2018.
Hon. Edward R. Royce,
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: H.R. 2504, To ensure fair treatment in
licensing requirements for the export of certain echinoderms,
was introduced on May 17, 2017. The bill was referred
primarily to the Committee on Natural Resources, with an
additional referral to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
I thank you for allowing the Committee on Foreign Affairs
to be discharged from further consideration of the bill so
that it may be scheduled by the Majority Leader. This
discharge in no way affects your jurisdiction over the
subject matter of the bill, and it will not serve as
precedent for future referrals. In addition, should a
conference on the bill be necessary, I would support having
the Committee on Foreign Affairs represented on the
conference committee. Finally, to memorialize our
understanding, I would be pleased to include your letter and
this response in the Congressional Record when the bill is
considered by the House.
Thank you for your response and cooperation. I look forward
to further opportunities to work with you this Congress.
Sincerely,
Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources.
____
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC, January 3, 2018.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, House Committee on Natural Resources, Washington,
DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: Thank you for consulting with the
Committee on Foreign Affairs on H.R. 2504, a bill to ensure
fair treatment in licensing requirements for the export of
certain echinoderms.
I agree that the Foreign Affairs Committee may be
discharged from further action on this bill, subject to the
understanding that this waiver does not in any way diminish
or alter the jurisdiction of the Foreign Affairs Committee,
or prejudice its jurisdictional prerogatives on this bill or
similar legislation in the future. The Committee also
reserves the right to seek an appropriate number of conferees
to any House-Senate conference involving this bill, and would
appreciate your support for any such request.
I ask that you place our exchange of letters into the
Congressional Record during floor consideration of the bill.
I appreciate your cooperation regarding this legislation and
look forward to continuing to work with you as this measure
moves through the legislative process.
Sincerely,
Edward R. Royce,
Chairman.
Ms. HANABUSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to
the gentlewoman from Maine (Ms. Pingree), the sponsor of this bill.
[[Page H754]]
Ms. PINGREE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Hawaii for the
time.
I rise today as well in support of H.R. 2504, a bill that will end
the practice of duplicative export inspections for sea urchin and sea
cucumbers that are being shipped overseas.
This is the second time that the House has considered this
legislation in recent years. I want to thank Chairman Bishop;
Subcommittee Chairman Lamborn; Ranking Member Grijalva; and my good
friend from California, Ranking Member Huffman, for their support in
bringing this bill again to the floor today.
I also want to thank my colleague from Arizona (Mr. Gosar) for being
here to speak in favor of this bill today.
Also, in the bipartisan effort that we are making here today, I want
to recognize and thank my colleague from Maine (Mr. Poliquin), who well
knows the importance of this issue and who has been an original
cosponsor of this bill, both in this Congress and the last.
I think it is important to explain to the Members who are here today
a little bit about why this bill is important and especially critical
to our Nation's sea urchin industry.
As a few Members may know, but most probably don't, the sea urchin
industry in Maine brings in over $5.4 million to our State every year.
It supports 600 jobs, which includes harvesters of the species. Also,
we have businesses in Maine which process the urchins harvested here,
as well as those imported from Canada and Chile, before being exported
overseas.
The need for this bill revolves around ending a duplicative
inspection of exported product that is unnecessary and costly. Urchins
imported to Maine from other countries to be processed are inspected by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when they get to the United States.
This scrutiny is necessary to ensure the integrity of the imported
products.
However, in recent years, the Fish and Wildlife Service has inspected
products once again before leaving the country, usually in New York or
New Jersey. This occurs before they are shipped to Asia and Japan, in
particular, where they are considered a delicacy.
I have spent the past few years working with my colleagues in the
Maine delegation to better understand the impact of this policy on
small businesses in our State and others where the urchins are
harvested. I believe these extra inspections are unnecessary. There is
really no reason why sea urchins should be treated differently than
shellfish, which have been exempted from these export inspections for
decades.
This process often leads to costly delays and lost product, as
urchins may end up sitting in hot warehouses waiting for days. At
times, the Fish and Wildlife office closes right when a shipment
arrives for inspection. The highly perishable product must then sit
there because of bad timing.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has worked with my office to try to
find solutions, and I know they have tried to work with us on
particular problems and trouble spots. But the continual delays,
despite their best efforts and that of harvesters, means that the only
real solution is to get rid of this duplicative inspection. Again, that
is what this bill will do.
This bill is a commonsense solution that will take away an
unnecessary inspection, while ensuring that the Fish and Wildlife
Service can continue to do their work and their jobs on other important
issues affecting our coast and coastal communities.
It will put our sea urchin and sea cucumber businesses on equal
footing with their partners in the shellfish industry who do not have
this extra scrutiny. It will help the hardworking men and women who
harvest and process in this fishery to dedicate their time and efforts
to that fishery, not to the bureaucracy.
I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill, as we did in the
past Congress.
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maine
(Mr. Poliquin).
Mr. POLIQUIN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to salute Chellie Pingree, my
cosponsor on this bill, H.R. 2504, for the great work that she has done
and that we have done together.
Mr. Speaker, I will tell you that the job of government is to help
our families, to help our small businesses, such that the kids and the
young adults in Maine can stay in our State, such that they can raise
their families and have a wonderful life.
The best part of the world is in the State of Maine. Now, Ms. Pingree
represents the southern part of our coast, Mr. Speaker, the southern
half, from Camden down to Kittery. I represent the downeast part of our
coast, from Lincolnville up to Eastport.
Now, in the downeast part of our coast, mostly we are the folks that
dive for the sea urchins and cucumbers. These are little critters that
are delicacies in the Far East. We might not eat them here in
Washington, but they are delicacies in the Far East. And in Chellie's
district, the southern part of the coast, they process these critters.
Mr. Speaker, this is very dangerous work. The folks that harvest
these sea urchins and cucumbers strap on tanks and go into deep, dark,
cold waters off the coast of Maine, and they are doing a great job
getting this product to market.
This product is incredibly perishable, so it is very important to get
them from the bottom of the sea floor in coastal Maine onto their
boats, down to Portland where they are processed in Ms. Pingree's
district, and then onto a truck, down to JFK, get them on a plane, and
get them to the Far East and sell as many of these critters as is
humanly possible.
This is where the problem comes in. As Ms. Pingree said, we already
inspect this perishable delicacy in Maine. We do not need, Mr. Speaker,
a second set of regulations that inspect them down in New York.
And God forbid that it is on a holiday and folks don't show up to
inspect them.
What happens to this very perishable product?
It sits in a warehouse on a tarmac where it is exposed to things that
would cause them to go bad.
So we need to do commonsense Maine stuff here, which is to eliminate
overregulation. We already inspect this product in Maine. We don't need
to do it again down on a tarmac in New York.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage everybody, Republicans and Democrats, to
work the way Chellie and I have on this, in a bipartisan manner, to
make sure our families in Maine have an opportunity to dive for sea
cucumbers and sea urchins and get them to market as quickly as
possible.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for giving me the time to speak on
this; I thank Ms. Pingree for the same. I really appreciate leadership
moving this through the floor here. I hope we have a very big,
bipartisan, unanimous vote on this, because it is commonsense Maine. It
is the right thing to do.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Pingree. I appreciate her work on this.
Congratulations.
Ms. HANABUSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I can make this even more real for people. Hawaii, as
you know, my home State, is very close to Asia. We have many of the
cuisines of Asia, and I can tell you that these are delicacies. Sea
urchins are also called uni, for those who frequent sushi bars, and sea
cucumbers are called namako. I grew up eating both, and they are very
critical and a major part of what we consume, especially, not only in
the sushi bars, but during festive holidays in Hawaii. So you can
imagine what it means in terms of an export industry for Maine, not
only to my home State, but also to the Asian market.
For that reason, Mr. Speaker, I join the introducers of this bill,
the sponsors, and I ask that my colleagues support this.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I, too, want to compliment the two Representatives from Maine. They
gave us a hands-on and a palate-trying type of opportunity in our
hearing. It doesn't get better than that, and I want to compliment them
for both.
I ask all of my colleagues to vote for the underlying bill, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 2504.
[[Page H755]]
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________