August 1, 2013 — Magnuson-Stevens was last reauthorized in 2006. The goal then was to base management decisions on hard science and require more accountability; both worthwhile goals but difficult to implement. The current system is by all accounts one based on the best of intentions but filled with the problems of many Washington-run bureaucratic programs.
Time flies when you're having fun. At least that's how it must seem for Members of the 113th Congress who have now passed the quarter mark for their term in office.
Now that they are back from the 4th of July recess, and with the August recess fast approaching, they need to get moving on some of their less controversial chores, like the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
For those those of you who don't fish or have not spent a lifetime dealing with the alphabet soup of Washington regulatory agencies, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is the primary law governing United States fisheries and fishing. It was intended to protect US waters from foreign fleets and is the basis for many of the commercial fishery laws we have today. The MSFCA expires this September, so the real work of reauthorization must take place now.
Rep. Doc Hastings, the House Natural Resources Committee Chairman, has been dutifully holding hearings on MSFCA reauthorization but the committee is only building on the groundwork laid down in the last Congress. I fear with fights on immigration, the Farm Bill, the looming debt crisis and the yearly appropriations debacle, common sense legislation like the MSFCA reauthorization may never see the light of day until is too late to do anything but extend the current system.