April 20, 2012 – The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2013 spending plan for NOAA on Thursday that includes an amendment to close the Northeast regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Gloucester and move the bulk of fisheries management, administration and law enforcement to Silver Spring, Md.
Federal lawmakers from Massachusetts vowed a fight to keep open the NOAA’s NMFS office in Gloucester, which was privately developed and built to specs provided by the General Services Administration. The edifice, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s newest and spiffiest regional headquarters among eight, sits in Blackburn Industrial Park, is assessed at nearly $13 million, and brings the city $169,185 a year in taxes.
The amendment was sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Science, Justice and Related Agencies. The Maryland Democrat said the region’s federal waters are vast, extending from Maine to North Carolina and “we in the Bay (Chesapeake Bay) don’t get calls back … This office provides problems at many levels.”
Read the complete story from the Bangor Daily News.