[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11458]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1000
CELEBRATING NATIONAL OCEANS WEEK BY ADDRESSING THE NEED FOR A NATIONAL 
                              OCEAN POLICY

  (Mr. FARR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to welcome those from all over the 
United States who are here this week celebrating National Oceans Week. 
They are here to celebrate a week that, frankly, we have no national 
ocean policy about, and that is why I want to speak to you today about 
the need to have this Congress enact laws that will make the ocean 
policy like clean air and clean water policy, perhaps addressing some 
of those problems that other speakers have talked about today.
  America's waters are managed by 140 different laws that spread across 
20 different agencies. I have introduced a bill, Oceans 21, with strong 
bipartisan support. It is moving through Congress, and I urge my 
colleagues to join their constituents in helping Congress address this 
national policy.
  A New York Times editorial last week told Congress that they must 
give ocean issues greater priority, in part by reorganizing the way the 
Federal Government deals with them. America's waters are managed by too 
many laws and too many different government agencies, and they 
recommend the adoption of our bill.
  So join us in thinking about the oceans. If they are not well, 
neither will be the planet.

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