WASHINGTON and NORTH PROVIDENCE – Among the items before the U.S. Senate this week, as it weighs its own version of the economic stimulus plan that cleared the House last week, is a proposal to add $156.4 million to help transform the Northeast’s commercial groundfishing industry.
The measure – sponsored by Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, the U.S. senators from Rhode Island; their Massachusetts counterparts, John Kerry and Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy; and the senators from Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow – would allocate $100 million to boat buyout programs; $41.5 million to catch-verification staffing and technology; and $10 million to job training for past and future fishermen.
The goal is to downsize the region’s groundfishing fleet by 25 percent to 50 percent from its current total of about 800 boats, many of which sail out of New Bedford or Gloucester, Mass. The sponsors see the move as an alternative method of protecting both the North Atlantic fisheries and the fishermen themselves.
The federal government’s current fisheries-management approach – including the draft rules announced last month by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (READ MORE) – relies instead on limiting the number of days per year each vessel may spend at sea.
But under the most recent NMFS proposals, “the average fisherman would be permitted to work just 15 days a year,” the senators noted in Dec. 30 letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee, the Gloucester Daily Times reported today.
“In recent years,” the lawmakers wrote, “progressively more restrictive fishing regulations have made it extremely difficult for fishermen to earn a decent living.” By contrast, they contend, shrinking the fishing fleet would not only reduce pressure on the region’s groundfish, such as haddock and cod, but also “give fishermen a humane and fair exit” from the industry.
The proposal is one of many suggested amendments to the federal stimulus plan – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – an $819 billion version of which was approved last week by the House of Representatives.
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The next few days will be “critical” to that plan, President Barack Obama told reporters today, according to Bloomberg News. “We hope to be able to get the bill through in the next couple of weeks and put America back to work,” the president said.
That sentiment was echoed today by Whitehouse and Reed at a news conference in North Providence, hosted by Mayor Charles Lombardi.
The Recovery and Reinvestment Act “will not solve all of our financial problems but it will put people to work by investing in schools, bridges, and highways and provide targeted relief for essential health and education programs,” Reed told the local gathering. The package “contains vital funding for Rhode Island’s cities, towns, school districts, and universities,” he added. “Investing in our communities will not only help us through the immediate crisis, it will lay the foundation for future economic growth. That is why we must pass the recovery bill.”
Rhode Island would receive more money per capita than any other state from the recovery plan, analysts said last week. This year alone, under the Senate’s $890 billion version, the state would receive about $220 million to help local governments and school systems fund critical services; $132 million for road and bridge repairs; $46 million for drinking water and sewer systems; $12 million for weatherization programs for low-income residents; and $7 million for police departments across the state. It also would receive a share of the $2.1 billion allocated for federal energy-efficiency grants, while most residents would benefit from the measure’s tax credit for working Americans and one-time credits to Social Security retirement or disability beneficiaries.
“Rhode Island families are hurting, and we have an opportunity to help them,” Whitehouse said in a statement in North Providence. “This bill will help put people back to work, support our cities and towns in tough times, and invest in infrastructure – particularly, green infrastructure – we badly need.”
Lombardi used the senators’ visit to reiterate his community’s “dire need of assistance” with “numerous flooding problems, road reconstruction, fire code and security upgrades in our schools,” among other projects. “We are hopeful that the package will be passed in an expeditious manner, and that we will be able to address some of these serious issues in the Town of North Providence,” the mayor said.
Information about legislation pending before the U.S. Congress is available from the Library of Congress at thomas.loc.gov. For information from the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, including a summary of the Senate version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, visit appropriations.senate.gov.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA), is responsible for conserving, protecting and managing the nation’s living marine resources. Additional information is available at www.nmfs.noaa.gov. The New England Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional councils established under the U.S. Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management and Recovery Act. To learn more, visit www.nefmc.org.
