Steve Southerland Pushes Back Against Obama on Fishing and Drilling

U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., unveiled a bill on Thursday pushing back against President Barack Obamas proposal to limit energy exploration and fishing in 780,000 miles of ocean. Southerlands Marine Access and State Transparency (MAST) Act mandates any such actions would need to be approved by state governments bordering the impacted oceans, and Congress.

The president is brazenly attempting to shut down access to a portion of our oceans thats larger than Florida, Texas, and Alaska combined, said Southerland. In response, I introduced common-sense legislation to improve transparency and stop this unprecedented water grab from occurring without the consent of the individual states and their citizens. North and Northwest Floridas fishermen are already struggling to survive under this presidents overregulation of our oceans, and they deserve to know some in Congress are fighting to stop him from making their jobs even tougher.