Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chair, my amendment prohibits any funding from being used by the EPA to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce NOAA's vessel speed limiter rule.

This is a misguided rule that would require any vessel over 35 feet to go 10 knots or less all along the Eastern seaboard from Maine all the way down through Florida. They claim they are doing this in order to protect the North Atlantic right whale.

Well, let's review some of the facts.

Approximately 15 whales have been killed by boats in the last 18 years. You have got better odds of hitting the lottery than this.

The right whale population has been consistent since 1980.

The right whales used to calve every 3 to 5 years, but now they are only calving every 7 to 9 years.

What is this rule going to do for the economic impact? It has a $84 billion economic impact on the East Coast. It will jeopardize 340,000 East Coast jobs, and there are 63,000 registered boats that will be impacted with this new rule.

There is a better way to track these whales, but NOAA just refuses to do it. We tag horses, cows, pets, many other animals. Why can't we tag these whales as well? There is no reason that we can't use some commonsense solutions such as this. Tagging the whales would allow the boats to avoid any whales that are in the area without the need to put some burdensome speed restrictions all along the East Coast.

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Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, I urge all my colleagues to adopt this commonsense amendment and prevent the EPA from enforcing this job- killing rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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