Saving Seafood

Subcommittee to Hold Oversight Hearing on FY2019 Budget Priorities for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of Reclamation, and Four Power Marketing Administrations

April 9, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources:

On Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. in 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans will hold an oversight hearing titled, “Examining the Proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Spending, Priorities and Missions of the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Four Power Marketing Administrations.” 

WITNESSES:

Mr. Mark Gabriel, administrator, Western Area Power Administration

RDML Timothy Gallaudet, Ph.D., acting under secretary for oceans and atmosphere, U.S. Department of Commerce

Mr. Kenneth Legg, administrator, Southeastern Power Administration

Mr. Dan James, deputy administrator, Bonneville Power Administration

Mr. Timothy R. Petty, Ph.D., assistant secretary for water and science, U.S. Department of the Interior

Mr. Mike Wech, acting administrator, Southwestern Power Administration

WHAT:

Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans oversight hearing, “Examining the Proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Spending, Priorities and Missions of the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Four Power Marketing Administrations.”

WHEN:

Thursday, April 12, 2:00 p.m.

WHERE:

1324 Longworth House Office Building 

Visit the Committee Calendar for additional information once it is made available. The meeting is open to the public and a video feed will stream live at House Committee on Natural Resources.

 

NW governors urge Congress to act on sea lion predation bill

February 14, 2018 — The governors of Oregon, Washington and Idaho in a letter urged members of the Northwest congressional delegation to support legislation that would help reduce predation by sea lions on salmon and steelhead, sturgeon and lamprey.

H.R. 2083 is sponsored by Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.). The House bill has cleared the Natural Resources Committee. The federal legislation gives local agencies the ability to better control predation by sea lions in the Columbia and Willamette rivers.

“I am pleased to see bipartisan support for my bill continue to grow,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement. “As the governors stated in their letter, we must act to protect our native Columbia River salmon and steelhead. I am hopeful that the senators from Oregon and Washington will also join in supporting this bill to successfully move it through Congress.”

Gov. Kate Brown (Oregon), Gov. Jay Inslee (Washington) and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter (Idaho) sent the letter Jan. 25 to the 17 members of Congress who represent the three states, urging them to support legislation ”aimed at reducing sea lion predation on threatened and endangered and other at-risk fish populations.”

“Although several hundred million dollars are invested annually to rebuild these native fish runs, their health and sustainability is threatened unless Congress acts to enhance protection from increasing sea lion predation,” the letter says. “Over the last decade, predation by sea lions on salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and lamprey in the Columbia River has increased dramatically.”

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

 

NFI seeks to reach administration on seafood trade in 2018

January 2, 2018 — Pressing the importance of all trade on the Donald Trump administration, including imported seafood, will be one of the top priorities of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) in 2018.

The US seafood industry’s biggest trade association, representing close to 300 companies, is still smarting from several of the moves made by the White House and its Cabinet in their first year, including its formal withdrawal from a trade deal with Pacific countries, a lack of progress on a trade deal with Europe and implementation of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (Simp).

But NFI president John Connelly said trade will remain a top focal point for the group in the New Year.

“We just need to spend more time on the Hill and in the administration to help them appreciate that not all trade is negative for the US,” Connelly told Undercurrent News in an December interview at his office in McLean, Virginia. “Seafood is not like steel or autos or something else. We cannot now produce enough seafood in the US, whether it be from wild capture or aquaculture, to feed all Americans.”

The US exports 40% to 60% of the seafood it produces, depending on the value of the dollar and some other factors, and imports about 85% of the seafood it consumes. Seafood is responsible for 1,270,141 jobs in the U.S. and imports account for 525,291 of those, according to Department of Commerce data noted by the association.

“Gladys, down in Brownsville, Texas, is cutting imported tilapia right now, and that job is extraordinarily important to her family. Why is that job any less important than a job involving domestic codfish?” Connelly said.

High points and low points in 2017

But in looking back at 2017, Connelly can point to at least one major trade-related victory: The removal of the prospective border adjustment tax from the legislative tax overhaul passed by Congress and signed by the president before leaving on its winter break. The provision, which was supported by several Republican leaders, would have forced some seafood dealers to raise their prices 30% to 40%, said Connelly, quoting a Wall Street Journal article.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Chairman Bishop Invites Patagonia CEO to Testify Before House Natural Resources Committee

December 15, 2017 — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources:

Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) sent a letter to founder and CEO of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, inviting him to testify before the Committee on the Antiquities Act, national monuments and federal land management.

“The committee believes that major public policy decisions involving millions of acres of public land should be discussed, debated, and considered in the light of day,” the letter states. “The committee also believes it is important to understand and allow for all perspectives to be presented fairly and respectfully…

“Over the last several months, the House Committee on Natural Resources has invited stakeholders from across the country to engage in a public conversation on these and related matters…

“As part of this continuing process, I wish to invite you to testify before the Committee about your views on federal land management.”

Click here to read the full letter.

Red snapper measures advance in Congress

December 14, 2017 — Measures that will impact how much red snapper recreational fishermen will be able to catch in the Gulf of Mexico advanced today in Congress.

Proponents, including recreational fishing groups and Louisiana lawmakers, say the two bills approved by the House Natural Resources Committee would eliminate overly restrictive catch limits and unnecessarily short seasons for red snapper. The measures would give Gulf states more authority to regulate the popular species off their coasts.

Environmental and conservation groups counter that the measures will hamper efforts to help red snapper rebound from years of severe overfishing.

U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves, R-Baton Rouge, whose district includes northern Terrebonne and Lafourche, sponsored one of the bills and helped craft the other.

“As the stock has rebuilt, recreational anglers have unfairly seen fewer and fewer fishing days,” Graves said in introducing the Red Snapper Act of 2017 this summer. “Something has to change. It is time to replace the status quo with a management system that more accurately reflects today’s red snapper private recreational fishery.”

Read the full story at the Daily Comet

 

In Congress, an effort to curtail national monuments

October 18, 2017 — WASHINGTON — On Oct. 11, the House Natural Resources Committee approved a proposal from its chairman, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, to overhaul the Antiquities Act. Bishop’s “National Monument Creation and Protection Act” would severely constrain the power of the president to designate national monuments. It would limit the size of monuments a president could designate as well as the kinds of places protected.

The 1906 Antiquities Act allows a president to act swiftly to protect federal lands facing imminent threats without legislation getting bogged down in Congress. Many popular areas, including Zion, Bryce and Arches national parks in Bishop’s home state, were first protected this way.

Under Bishop’s legislation, any proposal for a monument larger than 640 acres — one square mile — would be subject to a review process: Areas up to 10,000 acres would be subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act, while those between 10,000 and 85,000 acres would require approval from state and local government. The bill would allow emergency declarations, but they would expire after a year without Congress approval. It would also codify the president’s power to modify monuments — a power that has been contested in light of the Interior Department’s recent recommendations that President Donald Trump reduce the size of several monuments, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah.

Read the full story at High Country News

Fight over national monuments intensifies

October 16, 2017 — WASHINGTON — Conservatives have opened a new front in the fight over the future of America’s national monuments.

House Republicans are moving forward with a bill to reform a century-old conservation law, raising the stakes in their ongoing effort to curtail the president’s’ ability to set aside wide swaths of federal land as national monuments and protect them from future development.

The new legislation, from Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), comes as the White House mulls reductions to several previously declared monuments. That’s an effort environmentalists consider an affront to the Antiquities Act, a law signed by conservation champion Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

Conservatives, industry groups and Westerners have long pushed for changes to the Antiquities Act, saying presidents of both parties have abused the law, handcuffing local communities who could look to create jobs on public land. President Trump is an ally in that effort.

Environmentalists and most Democrats consider the Antiquities Act a bedrock American conservation law and have vowed to fight any effort to water it down.

The reform effort has its impetus in what conservatives consider an abuse of federal monument designation powers.

Sixteen presidents have used the Antiquities Act to lock up federal land over the last century. But President Obama used it the most often, and protected by far the most acreage — 553.6 million acres of land and sea monuments — inspiring a fresh round of legislative proposals.

Read the full story at The Hill

Bill proposes curtailing president’s power to create national monuments under Antiquities Act

October 11, 2017 — WASHINGTON — A Utah congressman has introduced a bill that he claims will restore the original intent of the Antiquities Act.

Bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop said the “National Monument Creation and Protection Act” aims to rid the 111-year-old law, which gives presidents the ability to set aside areas to protect their natural, cultural or scientific features, of political manipulation. If passed into law, the bill would severely cut back the president’s unilateral ability to create national monuments.

Bishop, a Republican, also serves as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which is scheduled to review the bill Wednesday afternoon.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Chairman Bishop Releases Antiquities Act Reform Legislation

WASHINGTON — October 10, 2017 — The following was released by the House Natural Resources Committee:

The Full Committee will hold a markup on Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 4:00 PM until 6:00 PM in 1334 Longworth House Office Building, to consider H.R. 3990 (Rep. Rob Bishop of UT), the “National Monument Creation and Protection Act,” and H. Res. 555 (Rep. Raul Grijalva of AZ).

Chairman Bishop released the following statement:

“The 1906 Antiquities Act was originally intended as an executive tool to protect historical and archeological artifacts and structures under threat. Regrettably, this worthy goal has been manipulated for ulterior political purposes. Today the Act is too often used as an excuse for presidents to unilaterally lock up vast tracts of public land without any mechanism for people to provide input or voice concerns. This is wrong.   

“This legislation provides for accountability in the Act’s uses. It modernizes the law to restore its intent, allowing for the protection of actual antiquities without disenfranchisement of local voices and perspectives. It standardizes and limits the president’s power to reshape monuments.

“If my colleagues are serious about their calls for accountability under this Act – no matter which party controls the White House – they will support this bill.”

  • H.R. 3990 (Rep. Rob Bishop of UT), To amend title 54, United States Code, to reform the Antiquities Act of 1906, and for other purposes. “National Monument Creation and Protection Act.”
  • H. Res. 555 (Rep. Raul Grijalva), Of inquiry requesting the President and directing the Secretary of the Interior to transmit, respectively, certain documents and other information to the House of Representatives relating to the executive order on the review of designations under the Antiquities Act.
WHAT: Full Committee Markup on H.R. 3990 and H. Res. 555
WHEN: Wednesday, October 11
4:00 PM-6:00PM
WHERE: 1334 Longworth House Office Building

Visit the Committee Calendar for additional information once it is made available. The meeting is open to the public and a video feed will stream live at House Committee on Natural Resources.

Bills to Modernize Endangered Species Act Advance through Committee

October 4, 2017 — The following was released by the House Natural Resources Committee:

Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources passed five bills to reform the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) issued the following statement:

“The ESA is a landmark statute created with noble intent. It also includes fatal design flaws that inhibit greater success and handicap state-led, science-based recovery strategies. These flaws must be addressed and the law must be modernized. This slate of bills provides a framework for this discussion that we will build upon in coordination with the Senate, Trump administration, states and all interested stakeholders. I thank the bill sponsors for their work on these important pieces of legislation and look forward to our work ahead.”

H.R. 424 (Rep. Collin Peterson, D-MN), the “Gray Wolf State Management Act of 2017,” reissues the final rules from the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to delist the gray wolf in the Western Great Lakes region and maintains effective state wolf management in Wyoming. The bipartisan bill passed by a vote of 26-14.

H.R. 717 (Rep. Pete Olson, R-TX), the “Listing Reform Act,” allows for the consideration of economic factors in threatened listing decisions. It also provides flexibility to agencies’ prioritization in processing listing petitions, which relieves FWS from excessive litigation and allows more resources to be used for species conservation and recovery. It passed by a vote of 22-13.

H.R. 1274 (Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-WA), the “State, Tribal and Local Species Transparency and Recovery Act,” fosters greater cooperation between the federal government and states by ensuring state, local and tribal scientific data is factored into ESA species listing decisions. The bill passed by a vote of 22-14.

H.R. 2603 (Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-TX), the “Saving America’s Endangered Species Act” or “SAVES Act,” removes duplicative permitting requirements for interstate movement of nonnative endangered species enhancing opportunities for conservation. The bipartisan “SAVES Act” passed by a vote of 22-16.

H.R. 3131 (Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-MI), the “Endangered Species Litigation Reasonableness Act,” combats the recent proliferation of ESA-related litigation by capping attorneys’ fees to the same reasonable levels allowed for other types of citizen lawsuits against the government. It passed by a vote of 22-16.

Click here to view full markup action.