January 7, 2024 — Several U.S. senators want to be able to track fishery disaster determinations the same way consumers track packages throughout their shipping process.
The Republican lawmakers are demanding more transparency from NOAA Fisheries on how the agency makes determinations of fishery disasters – a designation that makes communities and industries eligible for federal financial relief.
December 28, 2023 — Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Marco Rubio sent a letter to the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) Janet Coit to call for the application of the Fishery Resource Disasters Improvement Act (FREDI).
According to Sen. Scott’s press release, the bill has the potential to “improve the fishery disaster assistance process at the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service and restore confidence and faith in the fishery disaster assistance process by increasing transparency and user experience when applying for relief.”
Alongside Sen. Scott, Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Roger Wicker (R-MS) wrote that before FREDI was put in place, the logistics of the NOAA online system was subpar.
May 9, 2022 — Another U.S. senator has come forward with a bill that would prohibit Russian seafood imports from entering the country.
On 4 May, 2022, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) filed S.4143 in the chamber. Dubbed the Protecting American Food Producers from Russia’s Market Distortions Act, the bill would keep fish and other products out of American ports until Russia meets certain conditions.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
February 14, 2022 — Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS) has sent a letter signed by more than 65 supporters of aquaculture – including leaders in the U.S. seafood harvesting, production, and retail sectors – to Congress, requesting support for aquaculture expansion in the U.S.
The letter, sent on Monday, 14 February to both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, calls for support for the “Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture Act,” or “AQUAA Act.” An updated version of the AQUAA Act was recently introduced by U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Marco Rubio (R-Florida); and U.S. Representatives Ed Case (D-Hawaii) and Steve Palazzo (R-Mississippi).
December 16, 2021 — In October, a trio of senators reintroduced the AQUAA Act, seeking to revise federal oversight and regulation of large-scale offshore aquaculture. Now the act is paired to dance with a House companion, brought to the floor courtesy of Reps. Stephen Palazzo (R-Miss.) and Edward Case (D-Hawaii) on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
The Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture Act was last introduced by Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) shortly after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed NMFS’s lack of jurisdiction over aquaculture leases in the Gulf of Mexico, upholding a 2018 district court ruling.
“Had Congress intended to give [NMFS] the authority to create an entirely new regulatory permitting scheme for aquaculture operations, it would have said more than ‘harvesting,’” wrote U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo in the ruling that favored fishing, environmental and public interest groups who filed the suit against the federal government to fight an expansion of NMFS’ reach into aquaculture.
Read the full story at National Fisherman
December 3, 2021 — A slew of climate provisions in Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion social spending bill face an uncertain future in the Senate. But there’s one big exception: limits on offshore oil and gas drilling.
Democrats, aides and environmentalists feel confident that the prevention of oil and gas drilling in most U.S. waters will survive scrutiny in the Senate, including from key centrist Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).
Under the version of the Build Back Better Act that passed the House last month, new offshore drilling would be permanently prohibited in three major regions: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Other policies aimed at limiting oil and gas development have inspired fierce partisan divides on Capitol Hill. But coastal lawmakers of both parties have rallied around preventing drilling off their coastlines. For instance, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) earlier this year introduced the “American Shores Protection Act,” which would codify a temporary moratorium on drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
November 1, 2021 — Three U.S. senators have reintroduced legislation that would open the door for expanded aquaculture in American waters.
U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) are the initial sponsors behind S. 3100, the Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act. The bill would create federal regulations for fish farms established in the country’s exclusive economic zone.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
October 29, 2021 — U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Brian Schatz, (D-HI), and Marco Rubio, (R-FL) reintroduced the AQUAA Act which aims to create national standards for offshore aquaculture in the U.S.
The bill was first introduced in September of 2020, with the Senators describing the Act as a complement to former President Donald Trump’s May 2020 Executive Order, “Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth.” The EO focuses on the development of a domestic offshore aquaculture industry which will help create a sustainable seafood source and allow the country to rely more on its own resources.
More specifically, the bill would designate NOAA as the lead agency for marine aquaculture. It would also direct NOAA to “harmonize the permitting system for offshore aquaculture for farms in federal waters, and direct the agency to lead a research and development grant program to spur innovation throughout the industry.”
Read the full story at Seafood News
June 4, 2021 — On Wednesday, members of the Florida delegation sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo urging that the Department approve Florida’s request for disaster assistance for fisheries that were harmed by severe red tide events that occurred between 2015 and 2019.
Florida’s two U.S. senators–Marco Rubio and Rick Scott–and Republican U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan, Byron Donalds, Carlos Gimenez and Greg Steube signed the letter.
The full text of the letter is below.
Dear Secretary Raimondo:
We write to bring your attention to a pending request by the State of Florida for the declaration of a federal fishery resource disaster in response to severe red tide events that occurred between 2015 and 2019. We respectfully urge you to expeditiously consider the State of Florida’s request, and approve the disbursal of disaster assistance to fishing and seafood businesses that were harmed by the impacts to sea life that were caused by red tide.
On May 24, 2019, the State of Florida submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Commerce to declare a federal fishery resource disaster pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1861a, and the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act, 16 U.S.C. § 4107, in response to the severe red tide events that occurred in the state between 2015 and 2019. As noted in the initial request, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates that 1,300 licensed charter fishermen, 1,700 commercial fishermen, and 273 wholesalers were economically harmed by the impacts of the severe red tide blooms.
May 26, 2021 — Last week, U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., introduced a bill for the U.S. Commerce Department to increase regulation on the international shark trade.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced the bill in the U.S. Senate at the end of last month.
Rubio has been pushing the “Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act” since 2018 and he reintroduced it this week.
The bill “would require any country that seeks to export shark, ray, and skate to the US to first demonstrate it has a system of science-based management to prevent overfishing and a prohibition on the practice of shark finning” and ensure other nations “must also receive certification from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that its fisheries management policies are on par with US practices” and modifies the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is co-sponsoring the bill. So are U.S. Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Bill Cassidy, R-La.