[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14571]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                PROTECTING AMERICAN WORKING WATERFRONTS

  (Ms. PINGREE of Maine asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PINGREE of Maine. Mr. Speaker, coastal communities across this 
Nation are in trouble. In Maine and in other coastal States, working 
waterfronts and the jobs they provide are quickly disappearing.
  Working waterfronts include commercial fishing, boatyards and other 
businesses who need access to the water. Once these businesses close, 
once the waterfront stops supporting these businesses, history shows us 
they do not come back.
  Recently, I introduced the Keep America's Waterfronts Working Act of 
2009. This bill will help communities acquire permanent access to the 
water and develop programs to protect working waterfronts and the jobs 
they provide, the backbone of our coastal communities.
  A report released this week, the ``State of the U.S. Ocean and 
Coastal Economies,'' coauthored by Professor Charlie Colgan from the 
University of Southern Maine, found that coastal counties contributed 
42 percent of the national economic output in 2007, and working 
waterfronts are critical to supporting this economy.
  We must protect working waterfronts and the jobs they provide. I 
would like to thank my colleagues for joining together to protect 
working waterfronts, and I look forward to working together to move 
this legislation through Congress.

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