Saving Seafood

US House Republicans adopt amendment that would vastly increase number of H-2B visas

July 1, 2025 — Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have adopted an amendment that – if passed into law – would vastly increase the number of seasonal migrant workers allowed into the United States every year.

Backers of the amendment say it is necessary to ensure stability for businesses that consistently bring in temporary foreign workers and reduce uncertainty within the H-2B visa system. Currently, the federal government allocates H-2B visa slots to employers through a lottery, meaning businesses have no guarantee on how many temporary workers they’ll be able to bring in every year.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US House passes bill speeding up financial relief for fisheries disasters

December 4, 2024 — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to speed up the delivery of financial relief to fishers and businesses affected by federally recognized fisheries disasters.

Once requests for federal financial relief for fishery disasters are approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce, states, Tribes, or other governments set to receive those funds must submit spending plans on how they plan to distribute the money to eligible individuals and businesses.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

US House committee proposes 22 percent cut to NOAA Fisheries budget in 2025

July 22, 2024 — Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed a 22 percent cut to NOAA Fisheries’ 2025 budget, significantly scaling back funding for the agency charged with regulating America’s fisheries.

A 2025 funding bill recently approved by the House Appropriations Committee on a 31-26 vote includes just USD 865 million (EUR 795 million) for NOAA Fisheries’ operations, research, and facilities. That’s USD 248 million (EUR 228 million) less than Congress allocated for the agency in the omnibus 2024 spending bill passed in March 2024 and USD 239 million (EUR 220 million) less than the agency requested for 2025.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US House passes Oregon Congresswoman Val Hoyle’s port infrastructure bill

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.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US House pays tribute to Don Young by passing salmon task force bill

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

 

Gruff, warm, combustible, shrewd: For 49 years, Don Young’s ideology was ‘Alaska’

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

 

Council director laments marine monuments’ effects on fishing in western Pacific

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.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Coastal Congress members move to ban offshore drilling

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.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Congress passes fishing bill giving more say to American Samoa

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.

Read the full story from Radio New Zealand