WASHINGTON — January 15, 2013 — The House Rules Committee late Monday rejected an effort by three Massachusetts congressmen who wanted to attach aid for fisheries to a relief package being prepared for victims of the Sandy storm.
Proposals by Representatives Edward Markey of Malden, William Keating of Bourne and John Tierney of Salem would have included between $111 million to $150 million for fisheries across the country in the emergency spending legislation, set to be voted upon in Congress on Tuesday. The legislation did not specify how much money would have gone to Massachusetts.
In September, the Secretary of Commerce declared economic disasters in six northeastern states including Massachusetts, as catch limits and depleted fish stocks combined to ravage regional groundfish fisheries. While that pre-dates the Sandy storm, which occurred in late October, advocates said the Sandy relief measure provided the best vehicle for appropriating funds for fisheries.
“We wanted to approach this without taking away anything from the resources that would go to Sandy,” Keating said. “[Fishing] is an industry just knitted with so many generational small businesses, fragile businesses just trying to survive.”
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