Dan Sullivan

Madam President, Claims · 55 wordsI rise today to pass my legislation, the Bycatch Reduction Act, which is the most comprehensive trawl bycatch reduction legislation ever to come before the U.S. Senate, ever to come before the Congress. And we have made good progress on this bill. We have been working on it for, heck, in some ways many years.Off point Procedure · 7 wordsI am going to talk about this.Procedure Claims · 11 wordsWe had a great vote in the Commerce Committee last week, Off pointAside · 32 wordsand I see my good friend Senator Markey from Massachusetts, whom I have worked on a number of fisheries issues with--being a Massachusetts Senator and an Alaska Senator--is on the floor today.Aside The ask · 20 wordsSo I am hoping he is going to actually speak in support of this bill and pass it with me. Claims · 119 wordsThis bill has already passed all the Republicans in the Senate, who have approved it.¹ So this is really important for my constituents. For generations, Alaskans have depended on our oceans, our rivers, and our abundant fish resources that sustain all of us, especially salmon. From subsistence harvesters in our Native villages to commercial fishermen in our coastal communities to recreational fishermen across our State, Alaskans depend on healthy fisheries. For Alaska Native communities, our fish, especially salmon, are deeply connected to culture, tradition, heritage, and a way of life that reaches back thousands of years. Our salmon provide food, food security, jobs, culture. They support families and entire communities, and they are a source of deep spiritual connection. Anecdote · 39 wordsMy wife Julie’s family had a fish camp on the Yukon River for generations--generations. My daughters have all been raised in the summers on that river--every summer, my wife, my family, my in-laws, my daughters, a deep spiritual connection.Anecdote Claims · 95 wordsYet Alaska’s salmon runs, in particular, are facing enormous challenges. Our fisheries, in general, are facing enormous challenges. We have seen and continue to see huge fluctuations in salmon, crab, halibut, and other species that Alaskans depend on. We know the ocean is changing. It is an issue Senator Markey has raised a lot. We have ocean acidification issues. We know these conditions will continue to change.Unearned certainty We also know that fishing activity, particularly bycatch, and contact between fishing gear, trawl gear, and sensitive sea floor habitats affect the health and productivity of marine ecosystem. Positioning · 9 wordsSo what are we going to do about this?Positioning Claims · 74 wordsFor years, Alaskans across our State, everywhere--coastal communities, interior communities, villages--have been asking for action. Fishery managers have asked for more data to make informed decisions. Subsistence harvesters have asked for greater transparency. Communities have asked for greater accountability. And fishermen have asked for the tools and technology they need to reduce trawl bycatch. It is a huge issue in my State. I have talked about this bill on the Senate floor a lot. Anecdote · 10 wordsThis was an issue--a bill inspired by my wife Julie, AnecdoteClaims · 116 wordsas I have already mentioned her--it was part of my Alaska Salmon Task Force Act. What does this focus on? It is focused on bringing the best minds together--a bill that I got over the goal line, passed into law in 2022--to say: ³What is going on with our salmon runs? Why do we have really strong salmon runs in places like Bristol Bay, with their sockeye runs, and very weak king salmon runs on the Yukon River and the Kuskokwim River? So what we did in this bill is we brought the best minds in Alaska-- State, Federal, Tribal, indigenous, university, fishermen, community members--to come together and say: What is happening? Why is it happening? Reasoning · 23 wordsAnd what is the pathway to get to what every Alaskan wants: stronger healthy salmon runs on all our rivers, across all species? Claims · 411 wordsSo we did this. Alaskans coming together--this body coming together-- produced this very important report, the Alaska Salmon Task Force Act. NOAA Fisheries helped. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game helped. But, most importantly, we set up task forces with regard to Tribal members on the Yukon, on the Kuskokwim to make sure we had their input. This was Alaskans coming together. It is not easy to get consensus--not easy to get consensus on issues such as fisheries and salmon--but we did that. And this laid out several different recommendations on moving forward to get to the goal we all want--a roadmap back to strong, healthy salmon runs. This is an issue I have been working on for years, and one of the recommendations was to reduce trawl bycatch. There are other recommendations that we are working on--ocean acidification and many others--but this was a big one. So we worked on this bill, again, with dozens and dozens of Alaskans. This legislation honors the call for action that so many Alaskans have made and our Alaska Salmon Task Force Act has as well. The Bycatch Reduction Act is designed to do that, and it has a robust toolkit with several clear objectives. First, it establishes for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council standards and monitoring requirements and action and timelines to take action to reduce trawl gear contact with the sea floor and protect important marine habitats.⁵ Essentially, it requires proven tools, such as mandating certain technologies like salmon excluders on trawl vessels, to, again, reduce salmon bycatch. It invests in science and technology to continue to work on better understanding ocean conditions. It creates new gear testing facilities. It reauthorizes NOAA’s Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program that I have been focused on during my whole time here in the Senate.⁴ It reconstitutes the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force, with Alaskans and our indigenous experts with Tribal and traditional knowledge, ⁶as a bycatch task force overseeing NOAA’s activities as they relate to trawl bycatch. Alaskans overseeing NOAA is very important for our stakeholders. This legislation also strengthens transparency and accountability for trawling on the North Pacific Fishery Council. It requires NOAA to make observer coverage requirements and bycatch information more accessible to the public and easier to understand. It expands opportunities for Alaskans, fishermen, and other stakeholders to participate in the council process. It raises the issue and starts looking again at the issue of conflicts of interest on the council. Positioning · 17 wordsThese provisions are not ideas that came out of a Washington, DC, office; they came from Alaskans.Positioning Claims · 79 wordsAs I mentioned, this bill--the most comprehensive bycatch-reduction bill ever--builds on the work that hundreds of Alaskans did on our salmon task force to get to the goal we all want: stronger, healthier salmon runs across our State, across rivers, across species, especially given that we are seeing the devastating declines in salmon on the Yukon River and across the western interior of Alaska that have led to fishery closures, subsistence shortages, and families not being able to fish. Anecdote · 25 wordsAs I mentioned, my wife’s family keeps a fish camp on the Yukon River. We have watched those smokehouses, including ours, sit idle for years.Anecdote Claims · 47 wordsIt is heartbreaking. It is really heartbreaking to witness these families, their culture, the people who live along our great rivers not being able to put up fish every year, and they have been doing so for thousands of years. So this is an important first step. Reasoning · 22 wordsIt is because of the task force and hundreds of conversations with Alaskans for years now that we need to take action. Claims · 33 wordsThe Bycatch Reduction Act puts the recommendations here into action. Again, we had a very strong vote last week in the Commerce Committee. I think every Senator but four voted for my bill.² Procedure · 3 wordsI explained it, ProcedureClaims · 92 wordsand we saw how important it was because the bill uses science, technology, innovation, accountability, and action to help support reducing trawl bycatch and strengthen subsistence traditions, sport fishing in Alaska. It is about giving fishermen the tools to reduce bycatch, and it protects fisheries and fish stocks that depend on them. It is about making sure Alaskans have access to the data and transparency they need to participate meaningfully in the management of our fisheries, and it safeguards the long-term sustainability, particularly of our salmon, that so many Alaskans depend on.Off point Thanks · 22 wordsI want to thank the countless Alaskans who have been working with me and my team for years now on these issues.Thanks Claims · 22 wordsWe have sought and fought to reduce bycatch in many, many other ways, but this bill is a really, really important step. The ask · 15 wordsSo I am hopeful that my colleagues are going to now pass it with me, Promise · 17 wordsand we will move it over to the House and get it passed and signed into law.Off pointVague promise Madam President, The ask · 71 wordsnotwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 4938 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the Sullivan substitute, which is at the desk, be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.