Funding Instruction for Safety, Health, and Security Avoids Fishing Emergencies Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOLDEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of our Nation's fishermen and -women in support of H.R. 4719, the Funding Instruction for Safety, Health, and Security Avoids Fishing Emergencies Act, the FISH SAFE Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation will help ensure that our Nation's fishermen have the resources and training they need to stay safe on the job.

I introduced this legislation because I have heard too many stories like Charlie Smith's. Charlie, an offshore lobsterman from Jonesport, Maine, was 25 miles offshore pulling up traps when the rope snapped in his pot hauler. As he tried to grab the line, the hauler ran his fingers through, cutting two of them off. After the initial shock of losing his fingers, he grabbed a bucket of saltwater to numb the pain. After calling the Coast Guard, it took 3 hours for Charlie to get medical attention.

This story is one of countless others I hear from the fishermen I represent in Maine who are doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the country.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a commercial fisherman is 23 times more likely to die on the job than any other type of worker. From 2000 to 2016, an estimated 204 fishermen have died, and that number has risen to at least 224 in the past 3 years.

Despite these statistics, Congress decreased the Federal share of funding for fishing safety training and research grants in the last Coast Guard reauthorization bill. As a result, local organizations like the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association, the Maine Lobstermen's Association, and the Maine Lobstering Union have been left with higher costs to organize and run these lifesaving safety programs.

That is why the dean of the House, Congressman Don Young, and I introduced the FISH SAFE Act, which restores the Federal share of fishing safety training back to 75 percent, fixing the decrease to 50 percent created in the most recent Coast Guard reauthorization. The bill would also reauthorize the program, as my colleagues have said, at $3 million per year from fiscal year 2019 through 2021 and make several noncontroversial changes to provisions regarding authorities related to the former United States Lighthouse Service.

From Alaska to Maine, fishermen put their lives on the line every day to provide for their families and our communities. On the fishing piers of Stonington, Jonesport, and Deer Isle, I have met too many fishermen and lobstermen who have sustained serious injuries--lost fingers, deep scars, concussions--or have had close calls on the job.

That is why I am so grateful to organizations like the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association, the Maine Lobstermen's Association, and the Maine Lobstering Union for stepping up and providing fishing communities with the safety training to ensure that guys like Charlie can reduce the risk to life and limb when out at sea.

This bill is a step to make sure that our Nation's workers, including fishermen and -women, know that we have their backs.

I thank Congressman Don Young for working with me on this bill. This, actually, is not the first bill that we have worked together on. I appreciate the opportunity to work with him always, as well as Chairman DeFazio, Ranking Member Graves, all the members of the committee, and, in particular, their staffs, as well, for moving this bill quickly through committee. We think it is particularly timely and important for coastal communities.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this important bill.

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