April 26, 2012 – An ongoing effort by Sen. John Kerry to gain more federal dollars for fisheries research received a welcome boost this week.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, agreed to include specific language on directing fisheries funding in the fiscal 2013 appropriations bill.
The initiative began in March when Kerry and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, introduced the Fisheries Investment and Regulatory Relief Act that sought to redirect money collected from tariffs on imported seafood toward improving scientific research and fish stock assessments nationwide. The latest move seeks to expedite that process.
"I'm deeply grateful to Senator Mikulski for making this happen, because I wasn't willing to wait for passage of my … bill to achieve its intended results," said Kerry in a statement.
The 1954 Kennedy-Saltonstall Act directed that 30 percent of all duty paid on fish imports be transferred to the Secretary of Commerce and set aside for fisheries research and other projects. In 2010, $113 million in duty went to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration but only $8.4 million or 7.4 percent was used for fisheries research and development. The remainder, $104.6 million, was swallowed up by NOAA's operational budget.
The anticipated amount from tariffs for fiscal 2013, which begins Oct. 1, is $119,064,000, according to Kerry's office.
"This development puts the objective of the senator's legislation into another vehicle that is moving now," Kerry's press officer Whitney Smith told The Standard-Times on Wednesday. "The Kerry-Snowe bill would first have to get out of committee and then be voted on the Senate floor. The appropriations bill has to happen every year."
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times.