[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14824-14825]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1040
                   THE PRESIDENT'S OCEAN ZONING PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Southerland) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SOUTHERLAND. Madam Speaker, yesterday, in the Natural Resources 
Committee, we held an oversight hearing regarding the President's new 
National Ocean Policy, an Executive order to tell us how we can best 
use our oceans.
  Yesterday, it was amazing to hear those who believe in this policy 
applaud the use of the Federal Government in bringing stakeholders 
together. I will say this: This particular policy has been driven from 
the White House through Executive order under the auspices of ocean 
conservation, when its actual effects will be far reaching, 
economically harmful and hurtful to American jobs and businesses both 
at sea as well as ashore.
  Inside of this policy, there is something called marine spatial 
planning, how to best use our oceans, totally ignoring the common sense 
that the God who created us gave us at the moment He did create us. The 
background of this goes back quite some time.
  In 2009, a task force--I love those here. We have so many. We have 
councils and task forces. Do you know what? We need to form another 
committee. Well, I'm of the opinion that had Moses formed another 
committee, they would still be wandering around in the desert today. 
However, that's the mode of operation here. And in these frameworks and 
in these task forces, they come out with effective coastal and marine 
spatial planning.
  I believe this is one of the largest efforts of government regulatory 
overreach in my lifetime. And with the world being 73 percent water, 
what better way--for if we can capture and make sure that we determine 
what people do with these waterways, what better way to push our 
policies forward, to rob the American people of job opportunities and 
the freedoms that I believe were given at birth?
  The National Ocean Policy is less about coordinating fishing 
activities with other ocean user activities and more about creating new 
regulatory processes to further restrict fishing opportunities in both 
the recreational and commercial fishing sectors, according to the 
director of public affairs for the At-sea Processors Association.
  In my State of Florida, we have a crisis when it comes to homes and 
when it comes to real estate. Yet I know that homebuilders are going to 
be damaged greatly because this regulatory push does not just deal with 
offshore, but it also deals, as I stated, with onshore.
  The National Ocean Policy has a potential to create yet another set 
of standards and/or approvals that could unnecessarily impose 
significant impacts on homebuilders, private landowners, and other 
businesses while providing minimal--minimal--effects. Yesterday, we 
heard that what this plan does is bring together, through an adaptive 
process, stakeholders. Well, do you know what? We have the ability as 
stakeholders to communicate now.
  Since when do we need the Federal Government to tell us that we can 
talk to each other? Have we been so dumbed down? No, we have not. We 
have the ability to talk now and communicate without forming another 
government bureaucracy that robs us of those freedoms.
  And I appreciate that call to being a stakeholder at the table, but 
really--really--that would be like the Greeks

[[Page 14825]]

asking the people of Troy to help plan the design and construction of 
the Trojan Horse. This is nuts--nuts.
  I live in Florida. I lived on the coast. I have spent my whole life 
on the coast.
  This is another plan to push onerous regulations upon the American 
people and to rob the States and to abolish and do away with the 10th 
Amendment. I'm telling you, the States should be doing more while the 
Federal Government should be doing less.
  Do not be fooled by this. We must not be fooled by this. They say we 
need an economic analysis going forward. Well, how about a 
constitutional analysis to examine the balance between the Federal 
Government and the State governments?
  The National Ocean Policy is something that concerns me greatly, and 
I really believe with all my heart it would have concerned, in a 
terrible way, our Founding Fathers. This is an effort to turn our 
oceans into an aquarium. It is high time that the American people stood 
up and said enough is enough.

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