The United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of former NOAA Acting Administrator Neil Jacobs to lead the agency once again as the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere.
U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Jacobs in February, but the Republican-controlled Senate lacked the Democrat votes needed to clear many of the president’s nominations. In September, Senate Republicans changed the legislative body’s rules to allow them to confirm multiple nominees at a time in bloc votes after accusing their Democrat colleagues of slowing the confirmation process with procedural motions.
On 7 October, the Senate confirmed a bloc of more than 100 nominations – including Jacobs’ – in a 51-49 party-line vote.
Jacobs laid out his seafood priorities at his nomination hearing in July, highlighting trade issues.
“Reducing the seafood trade deficit is also a top priority. The U.S. has an estimated USD 20 billion [EUR 17.5 billion] trade deficit in seafood, much of it due to unfair trade practices, import of aquaculture seafood – which is often mislabeled – and the lack of domestic processing capacity,” Jacobs told lawmakers. “In addition to promoting the production, sale, and trade of U.S. fishery and aquaculture products, embracing new technologies and science-based approaches to stock assessments will benefit both the U.S. commercial fishing industry and the recreational fishing community. Leveling the playing field will also require cracking down on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.”
Jacobs also said he would prioritize getting stock assessments for commercial fisheries “back on track” and expressed interest in “beefing up” the country's Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP).
An atmospheric scientist by trade, Jacobs was previously selected by Trump to lead the administration during Trump's first administration, naming him acting administrator in 2018. However, the Senate never confirmed his nomination, and he was eventually replaced by former President Joe Biden with Richard Spinrad.
During his first run in charge of NOAA, Jacobs was criticized in a government watchdog report for his role in the 2019 “Sharpiegate” scandal. The report accused Jacobs of violating the agency’s code of ethics in bending to political pressure from Trump. Jacobs denied the report’s findings despite deleting texts related to the incident.
