[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 116 (Wednesday, July 11, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H6051]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RHODE ISLAND'S FISHERIES

  (Mr. CICILLLINE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, Rhode Island's commercial fishing 
industry provides thousands of good-paying jobs and hundreds of 
millions of dollars of economic activity every year; but later today, 
the House is voting on a bill that will jeopardize this critical sector 
of our State's economy. H.R. 200 undermines the science-based catch 
limits that we have used in recent decades to keep fisheries 
sustainable for the long term.
  We have seen this movie before. It was just a few decades ago that 
Congress first put the science-based catch limits in place. Congress 
had to do so because overfishing had brought America's fisheries to the 
brink of economic and environmental collapse.
  It turns out the science works. Since Congress put these science-
based catch limits in place, dozens of fish stocks have been brought 
back to sustainable levels and overfishing incidents have been cut 
substantially. Good-paying jobs in the fishing industry have thrived. 
The industry now, as a whole, generates billions of dollars in economic 
activity every year.
  H.R. 200 will reverse this progress. We cannot let it pass. It is a 
terrible bill that will harm fishermen in my State and all up and down 
the coast.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to 
reject this bill.

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