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guiding principles of our country if the framers of our 

 Constitution had added the same parenthetical to the Bill of 

 Rights? This critical element of the system of checks and 

 balances originally envisioned by the Act's framers should be 

 restored so that the National Standards will be able to serve the 

 purposes for which they were originally intended. 



One of the other protections in the original Act that has 

 disappeared over the years is the opportunity for redress should 

 there be a need to review a council decision. The original Act 

 gave the Secretary the discretion to initiate a hearing on the 

 merits prior to making a final decision. At a minimum that 

 authority should be restored. An alternative approach would be 

 to bring back the concept of a national review board or 

 committee, similar to that in the originally proposed Senate 

 version of the Act. Such a body could be available in 

 particularly limited circumstances to provide an avenue for an 

 objective hearing. Such a review board could be modeled after 

 the so-called "God Squad" procedure currently available under the 

 Endangered Species Act. 



Improving Council Procedures 



In an effort to safeguard my own company's interests before 

 the North Pacific Council, I have attended virtually all of the 

 Council's meetings over the past several years. That experience 

 has taught me many things. There are some that may seem 



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