October 2, 2023 — A shutdown of the U.S. federal government was narrowly avoided with a last-minute spending measure passed by Congress.
The stopgap spending bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and signed by U.S. President Joe Biden just hours before the 1 October deadline to avoid a shutdown.
July 19, 2023 — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill clarifying that ports can apply for Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) grants that support commercial fishing.
Run through the U.S. Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration, PIDP is a federal program that distributes competitive grants to port authorities, states, and local governments for port-related infrastructure projects. However, it was unclear whether ports could use PIDP funding for commercial fishing projects, U.S. Representative Val Hoyle (D-Oregon) said.
April 28, 2022 — The U.S. House of Representatives honored the late Don Young on Tuesday, 26 April, by passing legislation the longtime Alaska Republican congressman sponsored.
Young first won the state’s only House seat in 1973. He was the “Dean of the House,” a term given to the longest-tenured member in Congress. He died at age 88 on 18 March while traveling back to the state from Washington, D.C.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
March 21, 2022 — Don Young, the irascible riverboat captain who did not so much represent Alaska as personify it for half a century in Congress, died Friday as he was flying home to Alaska for yet another political campaign.
Young was 88, the oldest and longest-serving member of the current Congress. In serving the 49th state for 49 years, he had become the longest-serving Republican congressman in history.
No cause of death has yet been given. The congressman lost consciousness on a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle and could not be revived. His wife, Anne, was traveling with him.
Young was first elected to Alaska’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election in March 1973. Four months earlier, he had lost the regular election to Democrat Nick Begich, the incumbent congressman who had disappeared on a campaign flight but would not be declared dead until December.
Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News
May 6, 2019 — The executive director of the US Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council believes that marine monuments in US federal waters are needlessly restricting harvesters from fishing.
In recent testimony before the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, Kitty Simmonds asserted that fishing prohibitions in marine monuments amount to a “major impediment” for US fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO).
“These prohibitions have forced our fishermen out of more than half of the US [exclusive economic zone] EEZ in the WCPO and onto the high seas, where they are forced to compete with foreign fleets on the fishing grounds,” she said. “Because of limited data, the full impact of the expansion of the marine monuments in 2016 is yet to be fully understood. We do know that US fishermen have been displaced from US waters, where they have to travel farther to fishing grounds and compete with foreign fleets.”
January 9, 2019 — Seven members of the House of Representatives, including New Jersey’s Frank Pallone, D-6th, said Tuesday they will introduce legislation to block the Trump administration from expanding offshore drilling for gas and oil.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-2nd, said he has signed on as a co-sponsor to Pallone’s bill, which would permanently ban offshore oil and gas development in the Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Atlantic, Straits of Florida and Eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Van Drew expects the legislation to be introduced Wednesday.
“The bottom line is offshore drilling isn’t worth the risk,” said Van Drew, adding he still believes we need to rely on fossil fuels for a time.
September 19th, 2016 — The US House of Representatives has approved legislation giving American Samoa more say in fisheries management in the western Pacific.
Our correspondent says the Ensuring Access to Pacific Fisheries bill passed easily.
It had been sponsored by American Samoa’s Congresswoman, Aumua Amata Radewagen, who described it to the House.
“I am proud to say that this bill does exactly what the title suggests. It ensures our fishermen’s access to fisheries in international waters where we set the example for the rest of the world on how to best manage and conserve the ocean’s resources,” she said.
Aumua said the Obama Administration had closed off large swathes of the Pacific that have been used by American Samoans for centuries, while imposing irresponsible wage hikes on industry.
The Congresswoman said people testified on the bill that science had taken a back seat to geopolitics in fisheries negotiations with American Samoan fishermen, especially those after big eye tuna, paying the price.
January 19, 2016 — Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which governs commercial and recreational fishing in the state, got a new boss in January. Charlie Melancon, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislator, was appointed to the job by the state’s new governor, John Bel Edwards.
Although much of his non-political work in the past has centered on the state’s sugar cane industry, Melancon said he is confident that other experience, including working closely with fishermen when in Congress, has prepared him well for this new challenge.
“My experience is in sitting down at the table and working through problems, that is what I have always brought,” Melancon said. “Whether it’s dating or a marriage or a political relationship, and that is what I have always brought, sitting down and compromising and finding common ground.”
Read the full story at National Fisherman
December 21, 2015 — The following was released by the House Subcommittee on Water, Power, and Oceans:
Through conducting oversight of the Obama Administration’s actions and through key marine resource management reforms, Subcommittee Republicans remain dedicated to preserving American’s access to our domestic offshore waters.
In June, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1335, the “Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act.” This bill, introduced by Rep. Don Young (AK-At Large), makes key reforms to the Magnuson- Stevens Act – the primary law regulating federal fisheries management. H.R. 1335 increases transparency in federal fisheries agency decisions, empowers regional decision-making, and improves recreational fishing data and access through requiring state data into federal assessments. The bill also ensures access to marine resources by affirming that the Magnuson-Stevens Act shall remain the ultimate authority over federal fisheries management even within the bounds of a Marine National Monument or Marine Sanctuary. Hundreds of organizations support the bill, which is pending in the Senate.
Despite National Park Service estimates on low fish availability, Chairman Bishop and his crew caught 48 fish in 70 minutes in Biscayne Bay, Florida. Source: House Natural Resources Republicans
Gaps in fisheries science and management decisions are not the only issues impacting access to marine resources. This past year alone, the Administration has entertained a series of executive actions and agency rules that inhibit fishing access, often without even securing the support of local entities or states.
This was apparent in June when the National Park Service released the final General Management Plan for Biscayne National Park in Florida, which included 10,502 acres in state waters that would be closed to all commercial and recreational fishing – despite opposition from the State of Florida and others. In August, the House Committees on Natural Resources and Small Business held a joint oversight field hearing in Homestead, Florida to review the plan.
Highlighted in this hearing was H.R. 3310, a bill introduced by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL- 27) that aims to avoid future situations like the one in Biscayne National Park by preserving a state’s right to manage the lands and waters within their jurisdiction. The text of H.R. 3310 was incorporated into H.R. 2406 in October by an amendment offered by Rep. Amata Radewagen (American Samoa). A number of fisheries organizations supported the amendment and H.R. 3310. You can find more information about this amendment and the markup here.
The Administration is considering additional ideas to close off further access. In September, the Subcommittee held an oversight hearing on a proposal being considered by the Administration to create the first Marine National Monument in the Atlantic, off of the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. During this hearing, Subcommittee members heard of a September 15 Town Hall meeting hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which one witness characterized as a “charade,” as so few details regarding Representatives Lee Zeldin and Tom the proposal had been made public at that time. Full Committee Chairman Bishop and Subcommittee Chairman Fleming and others subsequently sent a letter to NOAA and the Council on Environmental Quality echoing bipartisan requests for additional information regarding the proposal as well as additional opportunities for local input. Three months after the Town Hall meeting, the Administration has yet to release any additional information, including coordinates or maps, of the designation under consideration.
Representatives Lee Zeldin and Tom MacArthur and Chairman Rob Bishop in Long Island, New York. Source: House Natural Resources Republicans
The economic impacts of the potential Marine National Monument were also discussed at a December oversight field hearing in Long Island, New York, where the Natural Resources Committee and Rep. Lee Zeldin (NY-01) heard firsthand about the impacts of federal decision-making on public access and regional economies. This hearing highlighted the crucial reforms to federal fisheries management made by H.R. 1335 and the assurances that these provisions would give to the recreational and commercial fishing industries. Witnesses from the local commercial, recreational, and charter-for-hire industries expressed their support for reforms within the bill that increase transparency in federal decision-making and require greater incorporation of state and regional input.
The Subcommittee has also held hearings on specific bills aimed at regional fisheries issues in 2015. During a July 23 legislative hearing, the Subcommittee heard from fishermen, tribes, and the Administration about two necessary bills introduced by Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (WA-3) to preserve fishing access on the west coast: H.R. 564, the Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act of 2015, and H.R. 2168, the Dungeness Crab Management Act. To assist the recovery of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed salmon in the Columbia River watershed and to protect tribal ceremonial, subsistence and commercial fisheries, H.R. 564 authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to issue expedited permits authorizing states and tribes to lethally take non-ESA listed sea lions under certain conditions. Fishermen and tribal leaders testified that this additional authority was necessary as sea lions have inhabited the lower Columbia River and have been ravaging ESA listed species of chinook, steelhead, coho, and chum salmon. During this hearing, the Subcommittee also heard unanimous support from the panel of witnesses for H.R. 2168, a bill to make permanent the long standing tri-state (Washington, Oregon and California) Dungeness crab management authority in place since 1980. H.R. 2168 passed the House of Representatives on October 6 and is pending in the Senate.
Sea Lion eating ESA listed Salmon in the Lower Columbia River. Source: Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
The Subcommittee also held a hearing on H.R. 3094. As introduced by Rep. Garret Graves (LA-06) and others, the bill transfers the management authority of the red snapper fishery in federal waters from NOAA to a new authority comprised of a representative of each of the five Gulf of Mexico States in response to concerns over federal accountability, decisionmaking and access. The Subcommittee heard from a wide array of witnesses representing different user groups, including States, recreational industry, commercial and charter fishermen, and restaurants.
December 8, 2015 — A U.S. House of Representatives committee held a rare field hearing in Riverhead yesterday, the first time in recent memory such a committee has formally met on the East End.
A three-member panel of the House Committee on Natural Resources convened the hearing to discuss the federal policies that currently regulate the region’s fishing grounds, probing the policies’ basis in science, fishery conditions and economic impacts on the local economy with testimony and questioning of several invited witnesses.
The committee members who conducted the hearing, hosted by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), heard testimony for two hours yesterday at the Suffolk County Community College Culinary Arts Institute on East Main Street.
They also discussed alternatives to what some on the four-member panel characterized as oppressive regulation that could potentially damage the region’s fishing industry.
“In my part of the world, there’s a saying that if you have no farms, you have no food,” said committee chairman Rob Bishop, a Republican congressman from Utah. “The same can be said that if you have no boating access, you have no fish.”
Bishop claimed that federal agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have “ignored state and local laws, input and science” in their regulatory decisions.