In one of his last acts as president, U.S. President Joe Biden has signed legislation designed to speed up the delivery of fishery disaster relief funding to fishers.
The legislation was spurred on by growing frustration among lawmakers over how long it takes the U.S. Department of Commerce to certify fishery disasters took place and approve state and Tribal spending plans to distribute federally funded financial relief to affected fishers and affiliated businesses. Often, years will pass between the initial request for a fishery disaster determination and checks being delivered to struggling fishers.
“The state of Florida alone has requested fisheries disaster relief on seven different occasions since 2012; however, on each occasion, over two years has lapsed from the time of approval to when fisheries disaster relief funds were ultimately made available,” U.S. Representative Byron Donalds (R-Florida), the bill’s sponsor, said on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on 3 December. “This is simply unacceptable.”
The FISHES Act would speed up the process by ...
