NEW BEDFORD — NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco will be on the congressional griddle again next month if she accepts an invitation to testify before a Senate panel about the use of the fisheries asset forfeiture fund.
The invitation came Wednesday from Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Delaware, chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security. It was co-signed by Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., the subcommittee’s ranking member.
The hearing on June 20 in Boston’s Fanueil Hall has an ominous title in light of the grim news about the fund that emerged in 2010: “How is NOAA Managing Funds to Protect the Domestic Fishing Industry?”
An investigation of the National Marine Fisheries Service by Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser in 2010 uncovered disturbing news about the fund, which was the money accumulated from fines and forfeitures in fisheries law enforcement cases.
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