Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Southerland) for his work on this issue and his leadership on it, and I would like to thank the Democrats for allowing us to have this.

I want to just tell you, as a father who spends time in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2007, we were allowed to fish, as a family, 194 days out of the year. For 194 days, I could go out with my son and we could catch snapper, and we could catch up to four fish apiece. Today, we have now been reduced to 9 days. We have lost 95 percent. Mr. Chairman, 95 percent of the time that a family could spend on the water fishing together has been taken from us as sportsmen in the Gulf of Mexico with regard to red snapper.

So I want to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Southerland) for his work on this. I want to thank the other Members of the House for understanding us and how important this issue is to those of us who are the recreational anglers.

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