Saving Seafood

Problem Solvers Caucus Proposes More Covid-19 Relief Options

December 15, 2020 — A bipartisan group of lawmakers Monday offered Congress a double dose of compromise to end months of gridlock over Covid-19 relief talks as the year and unemployment benefits for 12 million Americans run out.

The Problem Solvers Caucus, a 50-member group made up of moderate House Democrats and Republicans, have been chipping away at the months-long stalemate in Congress since September. Just two weeks ago, the caucus formally introduced a $908 billion proposal to shore up the U.S. economy, but it gained little traction.

On Monday, however, the caucus rolled out a new plan to break up the massive bill into two smaller parts with tailored features that might make passage slightly easier should the measures actually come up for a vote.

The first bill proposed by the caucus totals $748 billion and would extend unemployment benefits for another 16 weeks and to the tune of $300 in weekly supplemental aid. The CARES Act stimulus package passed in the spring offered $600 in unemployment benefits.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Louisiana lawmaker, others seek federal aid for U.S. seafood industry

May 7, 2020 — Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has joined a bipartisan group of 25 lawmakers in pushing for federal aid for fishermen and seafood processors hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawmakers sent a letter today to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asking that upcoming coronavirus relief legislation include money and other support for the industry.

“Our seafood processors and fishermen have been dealt a significant economic blow as a result of coronavirus and are in desperate need of federal assistance,” the senators wrote. “It has been reported that many of the nation’s fisheries have suffered sales declines as high as 95 percent. In addition, while many other agricultural sectors have seen a significant increase in grocery sales, seafood has been left out of that economic upside, as stores have cut back on offerings.”

Read the full story at Houma Today

Liability Shield Is Next Coronavirus Aid Battle

May 4, 2020 — Senate Republicans’ efforts to shield companies from liability during the coronavirus pandemic sets the stage for a showdown with Democrats, as allies of businesses and labor fight over the terms under which the economy will emerge from its partial shutdown.

Senate lawmakers return to Washington this week to start working out the next round of relief for households and businesses, on top of almost $3 trillion approved so far. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who will control the shape of much of the next stimulus package, has called liability protections a must-have “red line” for Republicans, saying he won’t support Democrats’ call for further state and local aid without it.

U.S. busi­nesses fear a wave of lit­i­ga­tion as work­ers in meat-pro­cess­ing fa­cil­i­ties, gro­cery stores and other lo­ca­tions get sick or die from the Covid-19 ill­ness caused by the new coro­n­avirus. The U.S. Cham­ber of Com­merce warns that the risk of class-ac­tion claims and other suits could de­ter busi­nesses from re­open­ing their doors, even if they are act­ing in good faith to op­er­ate safely. The trade group has en­dorsed the idea of shield­ing com­pa­nies that fol­low fed­eral and state health-au­thor­ity guide­lines for curb­ing the spread of Covid-19.

Com­pa­nies have been em­pha­siz-ing the steps they are tak­ing to pro­tect work­ers, from dis­in­fect­ing fa­cil­i­ties and set­ting up plex­i­glass di­viders to op­er­at­ing on stag­gered shifts to al­low for more so­cial dis­tanc­ing. Re­tail busi­nesses such as gro­cery stores have rolled out re­quire­ments meant to pro­tect cus­tomers and staff, in­clud­ing re­quir­ing masks and lim­it­ing ca­pac­ity.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

NFI signs letter requesting liability protection from essential workers

April 17, 2020 — The National Fisheries Institute, along with 31 other associations representing industries from beef to trucking, has signed onto a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell requesting Congress grant liability protection from lawsuits related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The industries that have signed onto the letter all represent “essential critical infrastructure,” according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. government has told these companies that they have a “special responsibility to maintain your normal work schedule.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US food organizations urge government relief

April 3, 2020 — Sixteen United States food organizations are urging Congress to provide relief for their employees, including providing direct payments.

These “essential critical infrastructure” workers should be exempt from federal taxes and have immediate adjustments to their tax withholding or receive direct payments, the International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA), the United Fresh Produce Association, and several other groups said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other legislators.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Senators: Without aid, fisheries may sink at dock

March 25, 2020 — Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey are urging the U.S. Senate leadership to include the commercial fishing and seafood industries in any economic relief packages passed by Congress or face potential bankruptcy at the docks.

Warren and Markey, working with Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, wrote in a letter to the Senate leadership that the spreading novel coronavirus has robbed fishermen of their most dependable markets and left all quadrants of the seafood industry struggling to keep businesses afloat.

“Some fisheries are completely shut down because there is no market for their fish,” the senators said in their letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Seafood processors are struggling because closed restaurants are no longer buying fresh products.”

“Large export markets in virus-affected countries like China have also been disrupted. Additionally, many fishermen are not eligible for unemployment benefits because they are self-employed,” the senators said.

The letter traces the dire economic chain reaction the spreading virus has foisted on the fishing and seafood industries, from harvesters and processors to retailers and wholesalers.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

JONATHAN WOOD: Here’s why Congress, not the president, should lead on environmental protection

March 26, 2019 — Last month, Congress approved a massive, bipartisan federal lands bill, designating five new national monuments, 1.3 million acres of wilderness, 620 rivers as wild and scenic, and permanently reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This legislative undertaking “touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development, and conservation,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). That consensus is impressive in these partisan times, and it suggests these protections will endure.

It is unimaginable that these designations by Congress will be as controversial in two decades as, say, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument remains today, 20 years after President Clinton unilaterally proclaimed the monument under the Antiquities Act. The long-simmering political dispute over Clinton’s actions ultimately led to President Trump substantially reducing the size of the monument last year. That, too, is the source of significant conflict.

These two cases reflect conflicting visions of how environmental decisions should be made. When Congress decides, the outcome likely will reflect consensus and compromise. Everyone may not get exactly what they want, but no one completely loses, either. The compromise also is more likely to reflect careful deliberation (the recent public lands bill was in the works for four years) and open debate.

When the executive alone decides, however, the result is more likely to be a one-sided outcome, made with limited public process and without considering opposing views. That’s what happened with the Grand Staircase, which was denounced by former Rep. Bill Orton (D-Utah) as “going around Congress and involving absolutely no one from the state of Utah in the process. There was a major screw-up in the way it was done and how it was drafted.” Utah’s governor and congressional delegation opposed the monument, which is entirely contained within the state. When Clinton announced his decision, Utah officials were excluded in favor of celebrities and environmental activists, including Robert Redford.

Read the full story at The Hill

Massachusetts: Elizabeth Warren packs a town hall meeting, sits with Markey, Keating over fishing

May 14, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., came to the city Saturday to hear the concerns of fishermen who wanted a faster resolution to the Carlos Rafael problems that have closed two fishing sectors, maybe throwing fishermen permanently out of their jobs.

These cases of licensing and ownership, and repayment of overfishing, “need to be resolved as quickly as possible,” Warren said later.

Warren also heard from Mayor Jon Mitchell and fishing representatives who contend that the wind energy companies that are the finalists for an exclusive contract are not listening to the concerns of the fishing industry, mainly scallopers.

Warren along with U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass, and U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., listened about these matters in a meeting at the Wharfinger Building on City Pier 3, organized by Bob Vanasse of the industry lobby Saving Seafood.

They parted ways when Warren and her campaign staff went to the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School to conduct a town hall style meeting.

The event had an atmosphere much like a campaign rally, with Warren on stage answering questions from attendees who signed up in a lottery.

She touched on a dozen topics, taking her talk where the questions went, on everything from her late mother, poverty, and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who rejects a bill that would insulate special prosecutor Robert Mueller from being removed from office by President Donald Trump.

She also condemned the recent trillion-dollar tax cut while Medicaid recipients are threatened by cuts and 90 percent of Americans claim zero percent in the rise of the economy in the past several decades.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times 

 

Congress working to prevent government shutdown; fishery disaster funds up in the air

April 26, 2017 — Congressional and White House negotiators made progress Tuesday on a must-pass spending bill to keep the federal government open days ahead of a deadline as President Donald Trump indicated that U.S. funding for a border wall with Mexico could wait until September.

“We’re moving forward on reaching an agreement on a bipartisan basis,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said, adding that he hoped that an agreement to fund the government through September can be reached in the next few days.

But a big stumbling block remains, involving a Democratic demand for money for insurance companies that help low-income people afford health policies under former President Barack Obama’s health law, or that Trump abandon a threat to use the payments as a bargaining chip. Trump’s apparent flexibility on the U.S.-Mexico wall issue, however, seemed to steer the Capitol Hill talks on the catchall spending measure in a positive direction.

Arriving in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, California 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) said he will not be leveraged into supporting “bad policies” such as funding for a border wall, increased military spending and cuts to Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies.

“I am not going to vote for a government funding bill that includes overreaching poison pill provisions,” Huffman told the Times-Standard. “If we have a clean government funding bill, I will support it. But I am not going to be bullied into supporting bad policies in a sort of hijacking exercise with government funding.”

Read the full story at the Eureka Times-Standard

Letter calls for approval of fishery disaster funds

April 6, 2017 — A bipartisan group of congressional representatives sent a letter to House and Senate leaders Wednesday urging them to include disaster relief funds for nine West Coast crab and salmon fisheries in a government spending bill this month.

“The closures of commercial and recreational fisheries along the West Coast during the 2014, 2015, and 2016 fishing seasons caused severe economic hardship in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California,” the letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer states.

The House and Senate are set to vote on a government spending bill in the coming weeks that they must pass by midnight April 28 to prevent a government shutdown.

California 2nd District Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) is among the 17 members of Congress who signed the letter. Huffman is asking Congress to approve millions of dollars for the North Coast crab fleet and the Yurok Tribe. In January, the former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker issued disaster declarations for nine fisheries along the West Coast, which allows Congress to appropriate relief funds.

Read the full story at the Eureka Times-Standard