Senator Brown's Fishery Impact Statement Honesty (FISH) Act would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to require that economic impact statements on the affect of fishing regulations on communities be produced independently of NOAA and updated on an annual basis.
 
According to Senator Brown, fishing communities throughout Massachusetts are facing economic hardship because NOAA and the Commerce Department refuse to acknowledge that their catch share regulations are strangling the fishing industry.

The Commerce Department must be forced to produce an annual independent fisheries impact statement, so that officials at NOAA and the Commerce Department cannot ignore the situation or tailor the results of the statement to their own purposes.  Senator Brown's bill would require that the analysis be done by an outside neutral third party who would be chosen by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), not by NOAA or the Administration. 

If an independent auditor finds that NOAA regulations are hurting fishing communities, NOAA should be forced to make changes. Under the bill, the Secretary of Commerce is required to publish and implement a plan to address negative economic or social effects on fishing communities identified by the independent economic impact statement.

Read Senator Brown's proposed amendment to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.