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Hurricane Katrina and Rita Disaster Relief Marine Debris - Emergency Assessment and Cleanup Marine Debris can impact trawling practices. Unmapped debris from the hurricanes can result in damage to fishing gear. Severe entanglement can result in the loss of gear and poses a safety hazard to vessels and their crews. President Bush identified two components for NOAA in the Katrina Emergency Supplemental Appropriation request:
The following language has passed in the House Emergency Supplemental:
While the the House language addresses the need related to Hurricane damage to the NOAA Pascagoula Lab, the House has completely stricken the request for the emergency assessment and cleanup funding for marine debris. The point of an emergency supplemental is to fund needs of a community that can not wait for the annual budget process. The identification of debris that poses hazards to navigation and safe fishing is a job that can not wait until FY2007. This year's fishing season is already before us. There remains a question as to whether the President's $21 million request will be enough to complete the work, but at least it will be a step in the right direction, allowing Congress to address the larger debris threat to safe navigation and fishing in the next annual appropriation cycle. The safety of watermen and the success of this year's fishing season lies in the hands of the Senate appropriators. Markup of the Senate emergency supplemental appropriations bill will begin on the week of April 3, 2006. Now is the time to contact your Senators to urge them to fund NOAA at least at the level of the President's requested $21.0 million to provide assessments and assistance to restore fishery resources and implement sustainable approaches to fishery redevelopment in the Gulf. Contacting the Senate Appropriations Committee is also
very important. -LINK TO THE COMPLETE SENATE APPROPRIATION MEMBERS LIST- KEY Senate Appropriations members include THAD COCHRAN,
Mississippi, is the Appropriations Committee Chairman ROBERT C. BYRD,
West Virginia, is the Appropriations Committee Ranking Member COMMERCE, JUSTICE, and SCIENCE Subcommittee members
(the folks who fund NOAA) include: I suggest you CC a copy of your fax correspondence to the head of NOAA: Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr. If you send an electronic copy of your letters to me, I will also follow up with as many in-person meeting with Hill staff as I can over the next week. Send copies of the letters to will@whnuckolsconsulting.com After we win the battle on the Senate side we'll work on influencing the House Conference Committee members, but I'll save that suggested strategy until we get the funding through the Senate. If your seafood business utilizes the H2B seasonal guest worker program, check out http://whnuckolsconsulting.com/probono/h2b.html |
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