GLOUCESTER, Mass. — August 8, 2012 — U.S. Sen John Kerry, who has grown increasingly impatient in public with NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, sent her a six page, 11-point list of his expectations for fixing the regulatory and law enforcement system in the days following a Senate Commerce Committee hearing he organized for the Massachusetts State House last October.
But most of the “proactive and tangible steps forward” outlined in Kerry’s letter to Lubchenco have been not been taken.
For example, Lubchenco has not “come to Massachusetts” at all, much less at her “earliest convenience” to meet with representatives of the industry as well as the New England Fishery Management Council to discuss “allocation reforms” and other “major regulatory issues.”
Nor has she (nor the signing authority at the Commerce Department, NOAA’s parent agency) approved the disaster declaration request that Lubchenco promised the Senate Commerce Committee to fast track. Gov. Deval Patrick and his secretary of energy and environmental affairs have maintained constant pressure and communications with NOAA in the more than eight months since the filing of socio-economic studies that have shown the industry consolidating rapidly and unable to break even in day-to-day business enterprises.
The failure either to approve, disapprove or advise modification of the filing has brought strong statements of concern from Kerry and his office about his continued confidence in Lubchenco’s performance and suitability to the post she was given by President Obama at the beginning of his term.
At a news conference last Friday, Kerry said that, without immediate approval of the disaster declaration, which would open the door to financial subsidies for fishermen caused harm by government policies, he’ll “have comment” on whether he agrees with Sen. Scott Brown that Lubchenco should be fired.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.