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By Lorelei Stevens
WASHINGTON, DC - Federal disaster aid money is headed to New England to help soften the blow of new groundfish restrictions. The money will be distributed in the form of direct grants to states, cooperative research funding, and seed money for a possible industry-funded buyback program.
Members of the New England congressional delegation pushed hard to attach the $16-million relief package to the Fiscal Year 2002 Emergency Supplemental Funding Bill, which was approved by Congress and sent to the president. Some industry people protested that the $16 million won't go very far.
Fisherman's wife Josephine Carey of Gloucester, MA summed it up for many during an interview with the Boston Globe when she said of the funding, "Whatever it is, we know it's a Band-Aid for a knife wound."
But congressional aides were quick to point out that the primary purpose of the bill was to deal with homeland security needs, not fisheries.
"This supplemental appropriations bill is not perfect," said Reps. Tom Allen (D-ME) and John Baldacci (D-ME) in a joint statement. But, "taken together, this financial backing offers a measure of short-term relief for fishermen while we continue to pursue long-range legislative solutions."
Sens. Olympia Snow (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and John Kerry (D-MA) were among those to announce on July 19, that the funding had made it through the House-Senate conference process and that the full bill was expected to be signed by President Bush.
The funding was also strongly supported by Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Judd Gregg (R-NH), and Jack Reed (D-RI).
Out of the $16 million, $11 million will be sent to the states through the Department of Commerce. Massachusetts will get the lion's share of this money, $5.5 million. Maine and New Hampshire will each get $2 million, and Rhode Island will get $1.5 million.
According to congressional aides, Congress intended that the states receive the money and decide for themselves how, as the conference report language states, "to provide economic assistance to fishermen and fishing communities affected by federal closures and fishing restrictions in the New England groundfish fishery."
The bill requires the money to remain available until Sept. 30, 2003.
Research
The remaining $5 million is designated for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the parent agency of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), to fund a cooperative research program in Massachusetts, New state or other public sources or private or nonprofit organizations."
The language mentions only NOAA and does not refer to the Northeast Consortium, which has administered millions of dollars in federal cooperative research funds over the last few years.
The conference report language specifies that $500,000 of that $5 million be used "for the cost of a reduction loan ... to carry out a New England groundfish fishing capacity reduction program" as specified under section 312(b) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Section 312(b) states that the object of such a program is to "obtain the maximum sustained reduction in fishing capacity at the least cost and in a minimum period of time."
Buyback
The buyback may be funded by any of several means including direct congressional appropriations, an industry fee system, and/or funding from "any state or other public sources or private or nonprofit organizations."
The latter two options are probably what Congress has in mind this time around since $500,000 isn't going to buy back much in the way of groundfish capacity.
"My guess is that the $500,000 will be used for holding public meetings around the region to determine if there is an interest," said one Senate aide. "It would be nice if we could get some money from the feds, the states, and the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), along with a small tax on landings to run the program."
Sens. Snowe and Collins also announced that the emergency supplemental bill included an authorization of $50 million in low-interest loans "for industry-fed buybacks for those who want to participate in order to reduce fishing capacity for Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island."
Earlier in the process that led to the disaster relief funding, the House version of the bill had designated the $5 million for the establishment of a new initiative - the Coastal Guardian Program, which would compensate fishermen for assisting in national security efforts.
This would have been similar to the voluntary Coastal Beacon Program (see related story on page 4A of Commercial Fisheries News, August 2002), but would have been used as a way to get money into fishermen's hands.
