Photo courtesy of NOAA Fisheries
US House panel to discuss need for more seafood industry relief
The financial desperation confronting the US seafood industry and the lack of much further assistance for harvesters and processors in the latest coronavirus relief bill introduced this week will be among the topics covered in a congressional hearing scheduled for Monday.
The hearing, titled “COVID-19 Impacts to American Fisheries and the Seafood Supply Chain,” has been called by the US House of Representative’s Natural Resources Committee’s panel on Water, Oceans and Wildlife, chaired by representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat.
Representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat and co-chair of the Wild Salmon Caucus.
Huffman is chair of the Wild Salmon Caucus and has been one of the early advocates for providing the commercial seafood industry with more relief.
Monday’s hearing, which is expected to begin at 1 p.m. EST and be made available for viewing on the committee’s YouTube channel, will include as witnesses: Steve Vilnit, the executive vice president of marketing for Capital Seaboard, a seafood wholesaler based in Jessup, Maryland; Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association; and Ashley Lewis of Bad Ash Fishing, a salmon shing tour guide.
The event was not yet listed on the committee's web site at press time.
On Tuesday, New York representative Nita Lowey, a Democrat, introduced the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, HR 6800, a 1,815-page bill that would cost $3 trillion and has been described as containing a "grab bag of Democratic priorities".
Besides providing emergency supplemental appropriations to federal agencies and additional direct payments of up to $1,200 per individual, it would expand paid sick days, family and medical leave, unemployment compensation, nutrition and food assistance programs, housing assistance, and payments to farmers. It would modify and expand the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides loans and grants to small businesses and nonprot organizations, and also require employers to develop and implement infectious disease exposure control plans.
However, despite multiple efforts involving a large number of lawmakers in both chambers of Congress, the bill would do little for the seafood industry except give the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) another $100 million to provide assistance to shery participants. The amount builds on the $300m provided earlier by the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020.
NOAA last week announced how it would distribute the $300m, giving $50m each to the states of Washington and Alaska -- amounts harvester advocates have described as minuscule when compared to the size of the losses being confronted.
By contrast, a bipartisan group of 49 members of the US House, including Huffman, sent a letter to House speaker Nancy Pelosi and minority leader Kevin McCarthy earlier asking for the next coronavirus relief bill to contain at least $2 billion for the US Department of Agriculture to purchase domestically harvested and processed seafood products. The letter suggests the seafood be distributed through food assistance programs, as the agency does for agricultural products under its section 32 powers.
And just days earlier Oregon senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, had joined forces with Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski and Rhode Island Democratic senator Jack Reed to lead a power block of 25 senators in a push to get the seafood industry $3 billion in additional funds from the next coronavirus relief bill.
However, Leigh Habegger, executive director of the Seafood Harvesters of America, a coalition of some 18 harvester groups, including the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, North Pacific Fisheries Association and Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, sees the HEROES bill as a positive development.
“We are grateful Congress recognizes the need for additional support for the commercial shing industry by including more funding in the HEROES Act,” she said in an email to Undercurrent, but added: “The industry believes there needs to be more funding and we'll continue working with members in the House to secure additional dollars.”
The legislation is expected to pass in the House on partisan lines Friday, assuming the chamber first passes a rule change that allows for remote voting. It would then head to the Senate where it faces considerably more GOP resistance, including from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
President Donald Trump declared the bill “dead on arrival” on Wednesday, saying it was packed with too many unrelated priorities, The Hill reported. Among the provisions that Trump has taken particular issue with in the bill is how it would expand access to mail-in ballots, which he has bemoaned as putting Republicans at a disadvantage.
Contact the author jasonhuffman@undercurrentnews.com