WASHINGTON — January 15, 2014 — Massachusetts fishermen and MIT scientists are among the winners in a $1.012 trillion spending deal released Monday night by Congress.
Under the bill poised to clear Congress this week, $75 million in fisheries disaster relief will go toward to the Commerce Department, which will then distribute it to states.
The assistance is part of a bipartisan bill that is set to begin moving through Congress to fund the U.S. government through Sept. 30. The compromise signals a break from years of forced budget cuts and congressional funding fights.
“We’re very pleased,” Representative John Tierney, who represents North Shore communities including the fishing community of Gloucester, told the Globe on Tuesday. “We’ve been desperate for our folks to get the help that they need.”
The $75 million in fisheries money marks the first relief since the Northeast groundfishing industry was declared an economic disaster in September 2012. The Senate previously voted for $150 million in disaster assistance, but the House appropriated no funding.
The omnibus spending measure also would give $22.2 million to the Alcator C-Mod facility at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which examines nuclear fusion as a potential energy source. The long-running research experiment was planning to cease its operation, after its already reduced federal funding was cut further last year.
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