Sportsmen's Heritage Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The purpose of my amendment is straightforward. It opens an area off the coast of my congressional district to recreational striped bass fishing. Striped bass is a popular game fish in New York, and it has long been an important catch for recreational fishermen.

The formation of an exclusive economic zone creates a small area of Federal water in the Block Island Sound between Montauk Point, Block Island, and Point Judith, Rhode Island. In most cases, when you hit the 3-mile point off the coast of the United States, you have nothing but Federal waters in front of you. This is not always the case for New York fishermen. Because of this geographic anomaly, when the ban on striped bass fishing in the EEZ went into effect, it closed off 60 percent of New York's traditional striped bass recreation areas from fishing, according to the Montauk Boatmen and Captains Association in my district.

The National Marine Fisheries Service recognized this unique area by designating it as a transit area where it was permissible for fishermen to possess striped bass on their boats as long as no fishing takes place while in the EEZ and the boat is in continuous transit.

My amendment goes one step further and opens this relatively small area to recreational fishing. Mindful of the need for reasonable conservation, my amendment also provides the ability to take necessary action for conservation purposes.

Fishermen and charter captains on Long Island know these waters better than anybody in Washington, D.C. Our friends on the other side of the aisle talk about government regulation stifling the economic recovery. After all, fishermen are job creators, both directly and indirectly. They hire crews, they have their boats maintained by mechanics, and they sell their catch to restaurants where Americans go out to eat.

I support fisheries management that is designed to promote robust health of fish stocks; but as the representative for the oldest fishing ports in New York State, I also support sensible efforts to ensure our fishermen can fish and earn their livelihood.

Opening this area would once again give recreational fishermen access to fruitful striped bass fishing grounds. Charter boats will benefit, as will the ports they depart from as people come to the east end of Long Island for great fishing. This will promote job growth and tourism, which is the goal of the underlying legislation.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BISHOP of New York. I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

The Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act's authorization of appropriations expired at the end of fiscal year 2011. Our Fisheries Subcommittee intends to hold hearings on the reauthorization in this Congress. I think this would be the appropriate time and place to have the discussion which is the subject of your amendment.

I understand the gentleman's concern. Believe me, we have heard other concerns on the Atlantic striped bass. If the gentleman would withdraw his amendment, I can assure him that he will get a full hearing on the content of his amendment in our committee this year.

Mr. BISHOP of New York. I very much appreciate that offer, Mr. Chairman. Based on your assurance that this issue will receive a full hearing in your committee or in the appropriate subcommittee, I will ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. If the gentleman will yield, I thank you very much, and we will work together on this. This is a larger issue, and I certainly understand the gentleman's concerns.

Mr. BISHOP of New York. I appreciate that.

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Mr. BISHOP of Utah. The Antiquities Act, which allows the President to designate land, is a legislative function that the legislature gave to the executive branch in Teddy Roosevelt's time. Whether it is good or not, it is wrong for Congress to give its authority away to the executive branch. At the time, it was thought it would be okay because there were specific restrictions placed on it. You had to have a specific something geological, historical that you were going to preserve, it was in imminent danger, and it was going be on the smallest area possible in the debate that was going to be over a couple hundred acres.

The unfortunate thing is Presidents since that time have used this monument designation power for political purposes in areas quite bigger than that. The last monument that was created in my State was not a couple of hundred acres. It was bigger than the States of Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island combined. It was done at 9 a.m. after the Governor of the State was told about it at 2 a.m., after having been told earlier that day that nothing was going to happen in this kind of an area.

Earlier this year, the Antiquities Act was used at Fort Monroe when the entire delegation and the local community were in favor of it. When ours was done, as well as many of the other Antiquity Act monuments were done, the local delegation was not in favor of it, and the Governor was not in favor of it. Everyone was not in favor of it. What the Foxx amendment tries to do is simply say, look, if you're going to keep this power with the President, at least get a check-and-balance system somewhere. Let's make sure that the local people, the State people are fine with this designation before the President does something arbitrarily, capriciously and, unfortunately too often, for political reason.

Keep the legislative power where it should be, with the legislature, but at least if you're not going to do that, at least put some kind of logical check and balance on the system.

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