Washington

December 7, 2012 — The following video is clipped from Senator Collins' remarks on retiring Senator Snowe during the December 6, 2012 Senate Session:

Watch the video on CSPAN

 

 

December 6, 2012 — Republican Paul Broun, chairman of a U.S. House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, added his written request Thursday to one made a day earlier by Democratic Sen. John Kerry that the Commerce Department make public the second volume of case reports into alleged abuses on the part of NOAA Fisheries law enforcement authority against fishermen.

The 66-case study, which reportedly runs more than 500 pages, with recommendations by the author — special judicial investigator Charles B. Swartwood III — was submitted in final form eight months ago.

The chairman of the subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Broun also asked Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank for “a complete and unredacted” copy of the original Swartwood report into fisheries law enforcement abuses, which was released in redacted form in May 2011. Swartwood’s first report required barely a month to review and redact before its release.

Blank’s communications office did not respond to multiple requests Thursday for comment on the letters from Kerry and Broun.

Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown and Congressmen John Tierney, Barney Frank and William Keating previously and repeatedly have criticized the government for failing to release the second Swartwood report.

Referring to unauthorized budgetary manipulation at NOAA’s National Weather Service, manipulation of the procurement process by NOAA fisheries agents in Seattle to get a $300,000 luxury undercover boat for pleasure cruising, the mass shredding of documents from the office the then-director of law enforcement, and NOAA’s refusal to respond to requests dating to last April for travel records of NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and a number of her top aides, Broun wrote of his concern that “of late, it appears that personnel issues at the (NOAA) seem to be commonplace.

“Yet, it is unclear to what extent, or in some cases, if at all NOAA reprimands its employees,” Broun wrote.

”The perceived delay in releasing the report (including the second volume of case studies by Swartwood) has resulted in further eroding of public trust in the agency,” Kerry said in his letter Wednesday. He said he wanted the report released “immediately, or at the very least, no later than the end of the year.”

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

December 6, 2012 — The chairman of a U.S. House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight today asked the acting secretary of commerce for a copy of the second volume of case studies into into alleged abuse of law enforcement authority at the National Marine Fisheries Service, as well as a report on recommendations for the agency. The case studies and report were completed and submitted by a special judicial master to the Secretary of Commerce eight months ago.

Congressman Paul Broun, chairman of the subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, also asked Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank for "a complete and unredacted" copy of the original report into fisheries law enforcement abuses of industry businesses, which was released in redacted form in May 2011. Broun, a Georgia Republican, wrote to Blank a day after U.S. Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote to Blank urging her to release the second volume or case studies by the special judicial master.

As recently as Nov. 18, a Kerry spokesman said, "We believe" the second report by the special master, Charles B. Swartwood III, will be made public "very soon."
"The perceived delay in releasing the report has resulted in further eroding of public trust in the agency," Kerry said in his letter Wednesday to Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank. He said he wanted the report released "immediately, or at the very least, no later than the end of the year."

The Commerce Department, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which in turn oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service, did not immediately respond to queries about the Kerry letter.

Since spring, Broun has been attempting without success to get the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration travel records for top executives, including Administrator Jane Lubchenco and Eric Schwaab, her choice to head the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In his third letter, dated Nov. 28, seeking travel records, Broun wrote to Lubchenco that "this level of recalcitrance mocks the notion of transpaency."

Released in May 2011, the first volume of case studies by Swartwood, a retired federal judicial magistrate and chairman of the Massachusetts Ethics Commission, resulted in a cabinet-level apology to 11 victims within the fishing industry — Gloucester- and New Bedford-based — of law enforcement misconduct, and more than $650,000 in reparations were distributed.

The redacted first volume also brought frustration to the fishing industry by leaving provocative uncertainties. As an example, six lines of a paragraph written by the judicial master that concluded with the statement that "money" was the motivation for the handling of the cases was blacked out.

The then secretary of commerce, Gary Locke, decided also to jettison National Marine Fisheries Service on the U.S. Coast Guard administrative law judge system that oversaw the cases and shift them to the system used at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Coast Guard judges expressed fury at Swartwood for concluding there was a widespread belief that the fishing industry could not expect fairness and justice in cases they tried, and have continued to lobby to reverse the decision to drop their services.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

WASHINGTON — December 6, 2012 — Sen. John Kerry is asking that the most recent report of the investigation into the alleged unfair treatment of fishermen by the attorneys and officers who enforce the nation's fishery laws be released "immediately or, at the very least, no later than the end of this year."

"In light of a declared fishery disaster, we must do all that we can to assist our fishermen," Kerry wrote to Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank Wednesday. "It is more important now than ever that our government agencies work cooperatively and rationally with our fishermen to ensure the success of new management systems.

The perceived delay in releasing the report has resulted in further eroding of public trust in the agency."

An original investigation of the Office of Law Enforcement at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration by Special Master Charles B. Swartwood prompted former Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to award nearly $650,000 in reparations for 11 legal cases involving Massachusetts fishermen or shoreside processors who suffered from excessive federal penalties.

 

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — December 5, 2012 — Senator John Kerry, in a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Acting Secretary Rebecca Blank, urged the immediate release of the most recent report of Special Master Charles B. Swartwood, a report commissioned as a result of an investigation made at Sen. Kerry's behest.

"In light of a declared fishery disaster, we must do all that we can to assist our fishermen. It is more important now than ever that our government agencies work cooperatively and rationally with our fishermen to ensure the success of new management systems,” said Sen. Kerry. “The perceived delay in releasing the report has resulted in further eroding of public trust in the agency.  Again, I urge you to release Special Master Swartwood’s report.”
 
The full text of Senator Kerry’s letter is below:
 
December 5, 2012
 
The Honorable Rebecca Blank
Acting Secretary of Commerce
U.S. Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20230-0002
 
Dear Acting Secretary Blank:
 
I continue to await public release of the most recent report of Special Master Charles B. Swartwood regarding allegations of abuse by NOAA employees.  I renew my request that the Department of Commerce publicly release it immediately, or at the very least, no later than the end of this year. I sent the first letters to NOAA regarding enforcement issues in 2009 and I strongly believe the agency must be transparent in the transgressions that have occurred and move to resolve them quickly to begin to rebuild its relationship with our fishermen.
 
It is my understanding that Special Master Swartwood’s report has been completed and may contain crucial additional information about victims of abuse and injustice at the hands of NOAA Office of Enforcement personnel. After the Inspector General report showed that our fishermen had been intimidated and penalized egregiously, I introduced the Fisheries Fee Fairness Act of 2011, to help reimburse the legal fees of fishermen abused by NOAA. I continue to consider appropriate changes to the NOAA enforcement structure, but in order to make those changes, it is critical that all information related to the issue is made public in a timely manner.
 
In light of a declared fishery disaster, we must do all that we can to assist our fishermen. It is more important now than ever that our government agencies work cooperatively and rationally with our fishermen to ensure the success of new management systems.  The perceived delay in releasing the report has resulted in further eroding of public trust in the agency.  Again, I urge you to release Special Master Swartwood’s report.
 
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
 
Sincerely,

 
John F. Kerry

 

 

December 2, 2012 — The chairman of the federal House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight has written a third letter to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco seeking executive travel records that have been withheld from Congress, asserting that “this level of recalcitrance mocks the notion of transparency.”

Chairman Paul Broun, a Georgia Republican, wrote previously to Lubchenco seeking travel records on April 26 and Oct. 24. His letter of last Thursday ended with the question “I must ask myself — what is NOAA trying to hide?”

In the latest letter, which the Times obtained, Broun wrote that “by law, NOAA must comply with citizen requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act within 20 working days. I shouldn’t have to remind you that a congressional committee with jurisdiction over NOAA is afforded greater access than that of citizens under FOIA.”

Lubchenco’s spokeman Scott Smullen emailed the Times that “we will soon provide an answer to the congressman.”

The Commerce Department inspector general, Todd Zinser, revealed in 2010 that NOAA’s agents and litigators had improperly gone to conventions in exotic locales, covered with money drawn from excessive fines exacted from fishermen and fishing industry businesses.

The revelations led to a Cabinet-level apology and more than $650,000 in reparations, but no one was fired or punished, leading Sen. Scott Brown to ask NMFS Administrator Eric Schwaab at a special 2011Senate subcommittee hearing in Boston, “What does it take to get fired at NOAA?”

The first letter to Lubchenco from Rep. Broun, whose subcommittee is under the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said he was writing after “a number of questions have arisen relating to the travel by senior NOAA management.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Read the letter from Chairman Paul Broun

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — Three Massachusetts congressmen have written to the House Appropriations Committee chairman asking that the Northeast fishing industry be included if any more disaster relief funding is considered in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca M. Blank issued the disaster declaration for the fishery in September because of declining fish stocks, which established the mechanism for distributing aid — if any is forthcoming.

"With disaster declarations now having been issued in several states, it is imperative for Congress to promptly move forward with appropriating sufficient funding for our fishermen," wrote Reps. Barney Frank, John F. Tierney and William Keating, all Democrats.

Their letter was addressed to Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., and Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash.

The three said that if a disaster aid supplemental bill isn't in the cards, that the committee should approve funding through the Commerce Department in the next fiscal year.

 

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

 

December 3, 2012 — Congressman John Tierney and two colleagues today asked the House Appropriations Committee not to forget the Northeast groundfishing industry in the drafting of any disaster relief legislation for the Atlantic states ravaged in late October by superstorm Sandy.

Although no bill has been filed, Tierney spokeswoman Kathryn Prael said that, with the committee attempting to determine the needs of the states in recovering from Sandy in anticipation of possibly drafting legislation, the congressmen —Tierney, Barney Frank and William Keating — wanted to file a “marker” with the committee for a fishing industry that has descended into a government-recognized socioeconomic “disaster” over a number of years.

Tierney’s district includes Cape Ann, Frank represents New Bedford, and Keating’s district includes Cape Cod and the port along the curve of Massachusetts Bay.

On Sept. 13, nearly 10 months after Gov. Deval Patrick filed his second and more detailed request for a fisheries disaster declaration for Massachusetts, Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank prospectively issued a regional fisheries disaster declaration covering the groundfishery beginning in May 2013. Patrick’s requests had also been followed by requests by the governors of New Hampshire and Maine and later Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York,

Funding any disaster recovery, however, was left to Congress. And immediately after the declaration, the region’s congressional delegation, led by Sen. John Kerry, asked Congress for $100 million, noting in a letter to Senate and House leaders that their “fishing communities have been struggling to survive amid federal regulations that have limited fishing opportunities.”

The Northeast groundfishery was re-engineered beginning in 2010 into what amounts to a commodity market trading in catch shares that has concentrated a greater share of the quota in the hands of bigger and better-capitalized businesses, while many smaller, independent boats that have long been at the heart of the industry have been driven to the sidelines, with an accompanying loss of jobs.

Patrick blamed the catch share system for the disaster, but Blank described it resulting from “undetermined causes” and diminishing stocks rather than government policies designed to remove a “sizable fraction” of the fleet, as NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco had said in a written statement issued to the Times soon after her 2009 nomination was confirmed by the Senate. The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last Wednesday upheld the legality of the catch share system for the groundfishery while presuming the government would establish accumulation caps on catch shares and policies to protect fleet diversity.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

WASHINGTON — December 3, 2012 — The following was released by the offices of  Congressmen John Tierney, Barney Frank and Bill Keating: Congressmen John Tierney, Barney Frank and Bill Keating today urged House Appropriators to include assistance for Northeast fisheries in any disaster relief package offered this year. The complete text of the letter follows.

December 3, 2012

The Honorable Harold Rogers                                
Chairman                                                                   
Committee on Appropriations                              
H-307, US Capitol                                                     
Washington, D.C. 20510         

The Honorable Norman Dicks
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
1016 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510                               

Dear Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Dicks:

In September, the Department of Commerce issued a disaster declaration for the groundfish fishery in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, New York, and Rhode Island. Last month, another groundfish fishery disaster declaration was granted for New York and New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. With disaster declarations now having been issued in several states, it is imperative for Congress to promptly move forward with appropriating sufficient funding for our fishermen. We write to respectfully request your support for and assistance with appropriating fishery disaster funding as quickly as possible to help the fishermen we represent.  

Specifically, should the Appropriations Committee craft and advance supplemental disaster assistance legislation to help affected states recover from Hurricane Sandy as well as this year’s record drought, we strongly believe such a bill should also include sufficient funding for our fishermen. If a supplemental disaster assistance bill is not considered, we then ask that sufficient fishery disaster assistance be included as part of any final Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations bill that provides funding for the Department of Commerce.

We believe the provision of disaster funding – along with overhauling the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and ending the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s overzealous regulatory practices – is critical to supporting our fishermen and helping them get a fair shake. We stand ready to work with you on this important priority to our local communities.

Thank you in advance for your attention and assistance.

Sincerely,

John F. Tierney
Member of Congress

Barney Frank
Member of Congress

William R. Keating
Member of Congress

WASHINGTON — November 30, 2012 —  Stalled by lawmakers’ focus on the fiscal cliff debate, odds appear to have dimmed for New England fisheries getting $100 million in federal disaster aid by the end of this year.

Members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation said they are now aiming to attach the funds to a larger disaster bill that would also contain relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, as well as Midwestern farms stricken by drought.

“Our coastal communities depend on a healthy catch to keep local families and businesses churning, just like Midwestern communities rely on the yield of their crops,” Alec Gerlach, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., said in a statement.

Massachusetts lawmakers expressed skepticism this week that a disaster relief bill could be enacted until after the new 113th Congress convenes in January.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Brockton, said the debate over expiring tax cuts and $500 billion in spending cuts would have to be resolved first during the lame-duck session of Congress, which runs through the end of December.

“For us to put a bill ahead of the fiscal cliff issue, I don’t think that would be wise,” Mr. Lynch said in a telephone interview.

The U.S. Commerce Department issued a disaster declaration for New England fisheries in September, after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported it was going to severely reduce catch limits for fish such as cod and flounder. The decision followed recent studies indicating that fish populations remain lower than expected.

The federal declaration did not automatically release any funding, but Mr. Kerry said in September that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had committed to including the $100 million federal aid package in future legislation. That funding is intended to allow fishing businesses and their communities to weather these low haul years.

 

Read the full story at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette