In 1972, Congress enacted the Marine Mammal Protection Act to protect marine mammals from harmful human activities. It is a landmark statute in our pantheon of national environmental laws, providing for the conservation and management of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals.

In the past, consideration of amendments to the MMPA was done on a bipartisan basis, such as the significant changes made by Congress in 1994.

However, during this Congress, I have stood opposed to the further consideration of MMPA legislation the Resources Committee approved almost one year to this day, until today. Let me emphasize that. Until today.

This was because the bill would have eliminated a fundamental mandate of the MMPA, known as the deadline for the zero rate mortality goal. In other words, we, as a Nation, are to strive to put into place management regimes which will reduce, and ideally, eliminate marine mammal fatalities at the hand of human beings.

The troublesome provision, which would have eliminated the deadline, has been dropped from the legislation we are now considering. In this regard, I would like to express appreciation to Chairman Pombo for agreeing to do this, and I am pleased to say that I support the bill, as amended today, and urge its approval by this body.

I reserve the balance of my time.