Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, as a Member of Congress, our job description up here is really short: Just take care of your constituency and just have oversight of the Federal Government, and we do that through things called appropriations and hearings. Appropriations are what we are working on right now.

Well, I want to tell you: The past 9 months, I have been out here crossing this country attending field hearings. I have also been speaking with and listening to members of our industries about the overreach and the out-of-control government agencies that we have up here, and that is why I rise today.

I rise today to speak about an important issue that, sadly, this bill is going to fail to address. You see, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's boat speed limiter proposed rule, which, by the way, NOAA is an unauthorized Federal agency, never authorized by Congress, but NOAA's rule limits the speed now of all boats 35 feet and longer to 10 knots, and this is up and down almost the entire eastern seaboard.

Now, they are doing this by claiming that this rule is necessary to save the North Atlantic whale, which, by what I have been able to find, they have been able to maintain roughly the same population since the 1980s, so I just wanted to go over a few quick facts.

Now, approximately 15 of these whales have been killed by boats in the last 18 years. Now, there are approximately 63,000 registered boats in this 35- to 65-foot length. That is a one in a million--in a million--chances that you are going to hit one of these whales. If you do, you are going to come out on the short end of the stick, and they are going to know it.

This is what is going to happen. This is going to have an $84 billion economic impact just on the East Coast. Also on the East Coast, 340,000 jobs will be impacted. This rule is not just going to cripple the boating and sport fishing industry. It is going to crush it, and it is also going to crush and kill the communities that support them.

Now, I offered an amendment to prohibit the Coast Guard from enforcing this rule, because I think our Coast Guard has a whole lot more important things to be out there doing, but, sadly, my amendment was not made in order.

Therefore, Mr. Chair, I stand today and I urge my colleagues to fight for language that is going to prevent the Coast Guard from enforcing this misguided rule during our conference committee.

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