August 20, 2020 — Maine’s congressional delegation wrote a letter to a federal agency on Wednesday asking it to act immediately on aid recommended by President Donald Trump for the lobster industry, which has been struggling under the effects of tariffs and the coronavirus pandemic.
The group asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to act before Monday’s deadline. In his June 24 memo, which came three weeks after he visited fisheries experts in Maine, the president urged Perdue to consider taking appropriate action “to provide assistance to fisherman and producers in the U.S. lobster industry that continue to be harmed by China’s retaliatory tariffs.”
Since then, the administration has been largely silent about any firm actions it might take. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, in early July inserted language into a 2021 spending bill that would require the USDA to act swiftly on the aid.