OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SAYS NO PUBLIC INPUT NEEDED
Denies Congress’ Request To Allow More Comment On Oceans Takeover
(03/30/2012) House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) received official notice from the Obama Administration denying the Chairman’s request for a 90-day extension of the public comment period on the draft National Ocean Policy Implementation plan.
“President Obama issued an Executive Order imposing a new bureaucracy to zone the oceans that threatens to deter new economic investment, suppress job creation, restrict even recreational fishing, block energy development, and stretch far from the shore to affect farmers and inland communities,” Rep. Hastings said in an official release.
“Given the high economic stakes, the vast amounts of new red-tape set to be unrolled, and the fact that some 15 agencies spent over two years devising this scheme, it’s unreasonable that the Obama Administration won’t allow the American people more than just 75 days to review and comment on it,” added Chairman Hastings.
The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) has been a longtime critic of the over burdensome bureaucracy of the National Oceans Policy going back to 2003 following a report by the Pew Ocean Commission when original legislation to bureaucratize management of our nation’s oceans was first presented by Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) in the form of the Oceans 21 bill.
RFA executive director Jim Donofrio, a vocal opponent of both the Farr bill and the President’s executive order to bypass legislative process, has testified numerous times in front of Congress to stop what he called a “takeover” of our U.S. oceans by radical, anti-access agenda.
“RFA has been back and forth to the House Natural Resources Committee many times over the past 10 years in an effort to stop this bureaucratic nonsense, and we’ve been very successful in keeping this bottled up thanks to the efforts of congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle,” Donofrio said. "Then Preside