August 28, 2o23 — After a long wait, Louisiana’s fisheries finally will receive $58 million in federal aid to offset disaster impacts, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves announced.
The Baton Rouge area congressman worked to secure the federal assistance in 2020 after multiple disasters affected the state’s fisheries in 2019.
Graves said in a news release the federal government has taken nearly four years to deliver the funding after it was awarded.
“There is no excuse for the bureaucracy to take four years for the disaster relief we secured to actually be made available, but these funds will be invaluable,” he said in the announcement. “We have promised the seafood industry we would not stop our fight to bring them relief while working to reform the broken fisheries disaster process. We will continue to work with our fishing community to cut through the red tape and make this program functional.”