The congressman for North Carolina's Outer Banks — an arm-in-arm ally of the New England fishing ports — has formally requested an oversight hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee into the Inspector General's report citing numerous failings and excesses by federal fishery law enforcers.
In a letter last Friday to the Democrat and Republican leaders of the panel, Congressman Walter B. Jones said the body of revelations by the U.S. Commerce Department's Inspector General "cry out for congressional oversight."
Jones wrote that the report "confirmed what I have heard from fishermen for years" about the law enforcement agents of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as well as the programs.
Due to the weekend blizzard, which closed many Washington officers, Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the ranking Republican, could be reached.