During a Republican-led hearing touting U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on restoring American seafood competitiveness, Democrats and assembled witnesses questioned whether the administration’s actions align with its stated purpose.
“I hope to work with the administration and my colleagues and the majority to achieve that goal, but I don't see how the administration is going to succeed when it spent the last four months haphazardly cutting the funding and workers that our fisheries rely on,” U.S. Representative Val Hoyle (D-Oregon) said during a House Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee hearing title “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.”
The first few months of Trump’s second term have been chaotic for fisheries managers. In February, the administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) spearheaded mass firings at NOAA as part of Trump’s initiative to forcibly and quickly shrink the federal workforce. Roughly 800 employees were reportedly let go, leaving many offices understaffed.
The Trump administration has also limited NOAA participation in international meetings, directed the agency to remove references to climate change and thwarted much of its climate work, and threatened to end fisheries-related grant programs. Trump’s ongoing trade war has also had major impacts on the U.S. seafood sector, with importers and exporters scrambling to avoid the highest proposed tariffs.
“Fishing communities in my state and many fishing communities around the country have been thrown into chaos due to these DOGE cuts,” Hoyle said. “You're not going to make our seafood industry more competitive by firing staff at NOAA, canceling research, banning NOAA staff from traveling to meetings, or by instigating trade wars with erratic and unstrategic tariff policies.”
Trump’s budget proposals threaten even more cuts to NOAA Fisheries and its staff. The administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget documents include a 28 percent cut to NOAA Fisheries’ budget. Across NOAA as a whole, the budget request projects full-time civilian staff levels will drop from 11,266 to 9,901.
As part of those changes, the Trump administration wants to transfer enforcement of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act from NOAA Fisheries to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency that only has limited experience with the commercial fishing sector.
Despite the large and ongoing cuts to the agency charged with governing domestic fisheries, Trump issued a proclamation titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness” in April. The president directed his administration to identify ways to reduce the regulatory burden on U.S. fishers, a move that was welcomed by many in the seafood sector, including the National Fisheries Institute. However, many questioned whether a depleted NOAA Fisheries had the capacity to implement such a large regulatory overhaul.
On 4 June, Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing to show support for the president’s proclamation.
“Our fishing sectors have faced tremendous challenges, whether it is issues related to the science and data collection used to inform management decisions under the federal fisheries management system, regulatory challenges associated with implementation of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, or additional efforts to restrict access to our waters,” U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming) who chairs the subcommittee, said in opening the hearing. “The good news is that President Trump is committed to addressing these issues. In April, he signed an executive order titled restoring American seafood competitiveness, which is intended to reduce regulatory burdens and restrictions to ensure that the American fishing industry can thrive.”
“Today's hearing is intended as a signal to those stakeholders that Congress will support President Trump in these efforts and will work with this administration to develop the necessary approach to charge a better path forward,” she added.
However, Democrats on the subcommittee were quick to point out that the Trump administration’s actions over the last four months – such as firing hundreds of NOAA staffers and threatening massive cuts to funding – have not helped make American seafood any more competitive.
“These statements about, you know, restoring seafood competitiveness is just deeply disingenuous, if not gaslighting,” U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) said in the hearing. “You can't speak these things into action. You have to do actual policies that make them happen, and we are not on the right track in that regard. Let's be clear, President Trump's imperial edict on restoring American seafood competitiveness doesn't restore anything. It certainly doesn't help American fishers. It dismantles the programs, the science, and the safeguards that have made U.S. fisheries among the most sustainable in the world.”
While the Trump administration has not been transparent about which positions were left vacant after the February firings, or how staff reductions are affecting the agency’s missions, anecdotal reports have shown NOAA offices around the country are struggling due to the cuts. In a 30 May report, NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Regional Office claimed it had lost 24 percent of its existing staff since 1 January 2025 due to a combination of the February firings, workers accepting Trump’s Deferred Resignation Program, voluntary early retirements, and voluntary separations due to the anticipated reduction in force.
“NOAA Fisheries is the bedrock of a science-based sustainable approach to managing fisheries in Alaska, and losing one quarter of the regional staff in six months is a direct threat to fisheries, ocean animals, and marine ecosystems in the state and beyond,” Oceana Pacific Campaign Director and Senior Scientist Ben Enticknap said in a statement. “Without adequate staffing at NOAA Fisheries the whole fishery management system is at risk, making it ever harder to tackle critical issues facing our oceans like climate change, habitat destruction, and the bycatch of salmon, halibut and crab taken in groundfish trawl fisheries. In the face of climate change and other massive impacts already happening to the oceans, we need more – not less – science and support from NOAA Fisheries.”
What’s happening in the Alaska office is a microcosm of what’s going on at NOAA offices around the country.
“Over one third of NOAA Fisheries positions are now vacant,” Hoyle said. “Fishery Science Centers across the country are bleeding talent and key NOAA Fisheries staff have been fired. For example, this spring, hatcheries that normally release millions of Chinook salmon are in limbo because the single NOAA employee, Christa Finley, was abruptly terminated in February by DOGE. Her job was to ensure hatchery operations met federal standards under the ESA and provide permits to release them. Now NOAA isn't processing compliance reviews the hatchery fish can't be released.
Hoyle added that this is the second subcommittee hearing in a row that NOAA leadership has declined to appear and answer questions about their plans.
Those reduced staffing and funding levels are having an immediate impact on fisheries surveys and the completion of basic regulations needed to operate commercial fishing seasons, according to Rick Bellavance, president of the Rhode Island Party and Charter Boat Association and a member of the New England Fishery Management Council.
“NOAA budget cuts and staffing reductions have hindered fish surveys and stock assessments, and it resulted in prolonged delays in the publications of regulations that allow fishermen to fish,” Bellavance told the subcommittee. “Canceled or scaled back stock assessments threaten economically important fisheries like ground fish, Monk fish and scallops in New England. Proposed cuts could further erode NOAA’s ability to provide critical science for management decisions. These uncertainties often lead to cautious catch limits, reducing harvest limits for both commercial and recreational fisheries.”
Witnesses at the 4 June hearing largely agreed that NOAA Fisheries’ staffing cuts would hurt the American seafood sector.
“The future of America's seafood industry depends on a fully funded and fully staffed NOAA. Fishing is more than a job, it's a way of life,” Alaska Marine Conservation Council Deputy Executive Director Jamie O’Connor told legislators. “NOAA faces the most severe budget and staffing cuts in its history, compromising the systems our industry relies on. Let me be clear, this isn't red tape, it's the foundation of our food supply economy and the stability of our communities. NOAA’s budget underpins virtually every part of the U.S. seafood supply chain. Cuts aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet; they are delayed surveys, outdated stock assessments, long waits for permits, loans, and disaster relief, weakened enforcement, and failure to modernize.”
