Chris Van Hollen Archives - Saving Seafood

University of Maryland receives $300,000 for blue crab research

July 31, 2020 — U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Steny H. Hoyer, all D-Md., July 27 announced $299,963 in federal funding for the University of Maryland, College Park for research into a new processing technology that could enhance the competitiveness of the domestic blue crab industry. The funding comes from the 2020 Saltonstall-Kennedy Competitive Grants Program through the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

“Few things are as iconic as the Chesapeake Bay blue crab, and its harvest is a cornerstone of Maryland’s local economies. This grant will expand the competitiveness of domestically produced crab meat in the face of intense foreign competition, and will help unlock new markets for an important Maryland industry,” said the lawmakers.

The U.S. blue crab industry has faced increasing competition from imported products, especially Venezuelan fresh pre-cooked crab, which has a longer shelf life. This has resulted in a major loss of market share for the Maryland seafood industry. This new high-pressure processing technology will extend shelf life of domestic crab products, while improving food safety and expanding market strategies among the seafood industry.

Read the full story at the Dorchester Star

Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts senators push Trump for aid for their states’ seafood industries

July 6, 2020 — Four U.S. senators representing the Chesapeake Bay region wrote a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday, 1 July, urging him to invest COVID-19 funding to the area’s shellfish farmers whose businesses have been greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The letter, written by Virginia’s U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Maryland’s U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, all Democrats, asks Perdue to use some of the USD 16 billion (EUR 14.2 billion) appropriated through the CARES Act to purchase oysters and clams from Chesapeake-based aquaculture businesses.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US Homeland Security to add 45,000 H-2B visas this year

February 25, 2020 — The U.S. seafood industry is on the verge of getting some good news as the Wall Street Journal has reported that the Department of Homeland Security plans to authorize an additional 45,000 H-2B visas.

H-2B visa allow non-agricultural businesses to fill seasonal jobs with immigrant labor. The program is vital for seafood processors, who claim they cannot find enough domestic workers to handle their needs.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

U.S. senators propose grant program to help restore Chesapeake Bay habitats

September 30, 2019 — Maryland’s U.S. senators and colleagues from across the Chesapeake Bay watershed introduced a bill Friday to create a federal grant program for projects focused on restoring the bay’s fish and wildlife habitats.

The Chesapeake WILD Act aims to replicate a similar program that provides $5 million annually for such projects in the Delaware River basin. The legislation would create a funding stream for work to restore wetlands, improve stream water quality, and plant trees and other vegetation.

If the grant program is approved, Congress would have to allocate money for it in the appropriations process for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is part of the Department of the Interior.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Oyster Restoration Funding In Chesapeake Bay

September 17, 2019 — The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved legislation for the Chesapeake Bay’s oyster restoration funding.

“A thriving oyster population is crucial to the health of the Chesapeake Bay, and in turn, to the health of Maryland’s Bay economy,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Appropriations and Budget Committees. “These funds will ultimately support critical efforts to sustain our oyster population and preserve the Bay. I will keep working in Congress to fight for the investments necessary to protect the Bay, its wildlife, and the businesses Marylanders have built around it.”

Officials said the funding will aim toward rebuilding a healthy oyster population in Maryland.

Included within the legislation were provisions to provide $20 million to the Army Corps of Engineers for multistate ecosystem restoration programs for projects involving oysters in the Bay, provide an additional $70 million to the Army Corps Work Plan for project construction.

Read the full story at WJZ

US lawmakers hail added H-2B visas but want Congress to make reforms

April 9, 2019 — The U.S. seafood industry and others that rely on temporary labor received good news at the end of last month when President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would allocate an extra 30,000 visas under the H-2B worker program.

It’s a marked change from the last couple years, when the administration released only 15,000 visas, which companies can use to hire foreign workers for non-agricultural jobs. This year’s announcement by the Department of Homeland Security also comes two full months ahead of last year’s. That will give seafood processors and other companies more time to apply and bring workers in for the seasonal jobs.

The decision means 63,000 visas will be available for companies through the end of the fiscal year, which ends in September. However, the 30,000 additional visas will only be available to workers who received one during one of the last three fiscal years.

Maryland officials applauded the news. The state’s crab industry has been hard hit by the lack of visas, with some businesses having to close because they could not get visas they needed to secure workers. In addition to seafood processors, hotels, landscapers, and the horse-racing trainers are among the businesses that seek these waivers to hire staff for their seasonal needs.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US Senate votes to free Fishermen’s Finest from Jones Act purgatory

November 15, 2018 — It’s been years since Kirkland, Washington-based commercial harvester Fishermen’s Finest commissioned Dakota Creek Industries, in nearby Anacortes, at a cost of $74 million, to build it a new, 264-foot catcher processor to work the seas of Alaska. To both companies’ misfortunes, the vessel was constructed with more than 7% of its steel coming from the Netherlands, a violation of the 1920 Jones Act, which allows vessels to contain no more than 1.5% foreign steel.

After Wednesday’s vote by the US Senate, however, that vessel – America’s Finest – is just one step away from being freed from its moors and able to do its job.

The upper chamber voted 94-6 to pass S. 140, a bill used as a vehicle to reauthorize the US Coast Guard. Most importantly, tucked deep inside the bill, in section 835, is a provision fought for by senator Maria Cantwell, a state of Washington Democrat, that would provide an exemption to the Jones Act for Fishermen’s Finest.

“I’m a very strong supporter of the Jones Act and believe it is important that we continue to have the Jones Act in the future,” Cantwell said after the vote. “I also believe that we were able to work with a solution to save good family-wage jobs at the Dakota Creek Shipyard and appreciate my colleagues working on the incorporation of that language.”

Five of the six senators to vote against the bill were Democrats: Ben Cardin (Maryland), Kirstin Gillibrand (New York), Kamala Harris (California), Chuck Schumer (New York) and Chris Van Hollen (Maryland), Independent Bernie Sanders was also a “nay” vote.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News