U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is proposing to provide disaster relief funds to Northeast fishermen in the first amendment she's filed since taking office.
The amendment introduced by Warren, a first-term Massachusetts Democrat, would allow funds in the 2014 budget to be set aside to aid fishermen around the region. No amounts are specified.
Last year, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce declared economic disasters in several fisheries, including the Northeast. Fishermen there who target bottom-dwelling groundfish, such as flounder, haddock and cod, are facing huge cuts in their 2013 catch allotments that many fear will wipe out the fleet.
The cuts come amid poor reports on the health of key stocks of cod, and even though the local fishing industry has generally fished at or below the levels recommended by science for the last decade.
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