December 20, 2024 — Lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are scrambling to pass a continuing resolution that will keep the government funded through March after President-elect Donald Trump pressured House leaders to scrap a carefully negotiated deal.
Congress has already missed its mandated 30 September deadline for fiscal year 2025 appropriations, punting any disagreements on the budget until after the November elections.
December 18, 2024 — U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California) has introduced new legislation to redirect revenue from offshore energy projects to the priority needs of Tribes and coastal communities, such as fisheries research.
Huffman’s Resilience, Equity, and Sustainability Through Offshore Renewable Energy (RESTORE) Act would establish a new revenue-sharing mechanism for offshore renewable energy development, reinvesting the money tthe government earns from its lease into habitat conservation, climate resilience, and economic development.
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December 18, 2024 — Two U.S. lawmakers have introduced a new bill intended to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) have partnered to sponsor the Protecting Global Fisheries Act, legislation they claim will expand the U.S. government’s authority and enable the federal government to better partner with foreign governments on maritime law enforcement.
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December 13, 2024 — The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely to bring big changes for one of the oldest sectors of the U.S. economy — seafood — and some in the industry believe the returning president will be more responsive to its needs.
Economic analysts paint a more complicated picture, as they fear Trump’s pending trade hostilities with major trading partners Canada and China could make an already pricy kind of protein more expensive to consumers. Conservationists also fear Trump’s emphasis on government deregulation could jeopardize fish stocks that are already in peril.
December 13, 2024 — U.S. President Joe Biden has signed the Coastal Habitat Conservation Act, which codifies the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Coastal Program and provides funding to protect, enhance, and restore priority habitats along the nation’s coasts.
“Coastal ecosystems are an integral part of our nation’s economy and well-being, but climate change, pollution, and unsustainable development are rapidly deteriorating these critical resources,” U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) said of the bill when he introduced it more than a year and a half ago. “This collaborative bill is a bipartisan solution to preserve the health and resilience of coastal habitats, benefiting the wildlife, communities, and economies that depend on them.”
December 9, 2024 — Based on actions taken by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration during his first term in office, some organizations are voicing concerns that he might try to alter and potentially weaken the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) after he takes office in January – which will in turn impact seafood consumption.
SNAP is the largest federal program aimed at combating hunger in the U.S. and supports around 42 million beneficiaries.
December 6, 2024 — U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today introduced the Create Offshore Leadership and Livelihood Alignment By Operating Responsibly and Together for the Environment (COLLABORATE) Act, a comprehensive bill to improve the offshore wind development process and bring new sources of affordable clean energy onto the grid.
The COLLABORATE Act would put domestic offshore wind development on track by improving permitting, coordination, and cooperation between agencies and with developers and stakeholders, creating a holistic process for offshore wind transmission, and boosting support for fisheries and other potentially affected groups, including the establishment of a compensation fund for eligible recipients.
“Rhode Island has led an early charge in America’s offshore wind development. My legislation applies the Ocean State model of good-faith cooperation to the federal interagency process, while fixing permitting and transmission problems to harness our abundant offshore wind potential,” said Whitehouse. “The pathway to a clean energy future is narrowing fast, and we can’t afford to lose investments to bureaucratic delays and endless red tape. I’m hopeful we can pass this bill swiftly and bring offshore wind online nationwide.”
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.
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December 4, 2024 — The incoming Trump administration and its emboldened congressional allies could soon reshape the Endangered Species Act without really touching the 1973 law.
The GOP-controlled Congress could rescind last-minute ESA-related actions. Appropriations bill riders and targeted legislation could block Biden-era moves.
Office budgets could be cut, if Congress goes along. By themselves, the Interior Department’s new political appointees could rewrite Biden administration regulations.
“I expect they will just have a knee-jerk reaction and pull back regs, shooting themselves in the foot on a policy that could be incredibly useful for infrastructure and agriculture,” said Timothy Male, executive director of the Environmental Policy Innovation Center.
Male cited as an example a Biden-era rule change that gives the Fish and Wildlife Service the power to require compensatory mitigation, also known as offsets, as part of the ESA consultations conducted with other federal agencies.
If history is any guide, a congressional rewrite of the law will remain a bridge too far.
The ESA regulations, by contrast, are a ripe target for every new administration.
The first Trump administration, starting in 2017, rewrote crucial ESA regulations that covered issues from how critical habitat is designated to how costs are taken into account when a species is proposed for listing as threatened or endangered.
This package of ESA revisions drew hundreds of thousands of mostly critical comments. Once implemented, they were entangled in litigation. Some, though not all, were subsequently withdrawn and rewritten in the Biden administration.
December 3, 2024 — The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has dedicated USD 148 million (EUR 141 million) to improving NOAA’s data collection and analysis to support “climate-ready fisheries.”
The money will be used to modernize the agency’s science enterprise, providing the tools and information necessary to help the nation’s fisheries adapt to rapidly changing marine ecosystems.
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