Steve Bittenbender

Seafood Harvesters of America sent U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross a letter on Thursday, 23 April, calling on the Commerce Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to communicate how it will use the USD 300 million (EUR 278.2 million) in COVID-19 relief funding to help the nation’s fishermen.

That money was allocated in the USD 2.2 trillion (EUR 2.04 trillion) CARES Act, which Congress passed last

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a USD 19 billion (EUR 17.6 billion) relief program to give “critical support” for farmers and ranchers to ensure the integrity of the country’s food chain during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a White House briefing on Friday, 17 April, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the money will be split among two programs, with USD 16 billion (EUR 14.8 billion) earmarked for direct

NaturalShrimp announced on Friday, 17 April, that its former chairman, Bill Williams, died on Easter Sunday. He was 85 years old.

A chiropractor by trade until the last weeks of his life, Williams was also an entrepreneur and founded NaturalShrimp 19 years ago. The company is based in Lacoste, Texas, about 190 miles south of Williams’ hometown of Waco.

An obituary in the Waco Tribune-Herald did not disclose a cause of death.

Williams

Members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to give New England fisheries a needed boost as they battle through the COVID-19 outbreak.

U.S. senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with U.S. representatives William Keating and Seth Moulton, on 2 April sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asking him to use part of the USD 9.5 billion (EUR 8.8 billion)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carré Spillway on Friday, 3 April, marking the first time in history the flood control system for the Lower Mississippi Valley has been opened for three consecutive years.

The release of freshwater from the river and the pollutants it carries into the saltwater Gulf of Mexico have devastated oyster, shrimp, and other fisheries, leading to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to approve

The U.S. Senate late on Wednesday, 25 March, unanimously passed a USD 2 trillion (EUR 1.81 trillion) relief package for American businesses and individuals whose work has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The bill now heads to the House, where passage is expected by the end of the week. President Trump has also indicated he would sign the bill into law.

The bill, the third taken up by Congress in relatively short order to address the

The United States Congress is nearing finalization of a third COVID-19 stimulus bill totaling up to USD 2 trillion (EUR 1.85 trillion) in across-the-board relief.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the package on the afternoon of Wednesday, 25 March, and the House of Representatives – currently in recess – is expected to reconvene for its own vote “as soon as possible,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) told

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there are no changes at this time to the current plan to add 35,000 visas to the country’s H-2B temporary worker program.

That announcement initially came prior to the coronavirus pandemic that’s shut down several sectors of the U.S. economy. Over the weekend, the U.S. enacted bilateral agreements with Canada and Mexico to shut down the borders for non-essential travel, which