[env-trinity] No fishery relief funds again in Congress’ $1.2T spending bill

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20170916/no-fishery-relief-funds-again-in-congress-12t-spending-bill?source=most_viewed

No fishery relief funds again in Congress’ $1.2T spending bill

Second time Congress passed spending bill without disaster aid this year
By Will Houston, Eureka Times-StandardSaturday, September 16, 2017For Yurok Tribe member Sammy Gensaw III, the divide between Capitol Hill and his hometown of Requa on the mouth of the Klamath River is measured in more than miles.The tribe and commercial fishermen across the West Coast learned this past week that the House of Representatives once again did not include fishery disaster relief funds in a $1.2 trillion spending bill it approved. The relief funds would aid fishermen who suffered major losses after the disastrous 2015-2016 crab season and 2016 salmon season. This year’s salmon season was even worse, with the forecast return of Klamath River Chinook salmon being the lowest on record.“Salmon is not just an animal and a food source,” Gensaw, 23, said Saturday afternoon. “It’s everything. It’s related to every concept of our life, to being able to pay our bills, to being able to feed our children and to being able to keep a roof over our heads.“... This is all just money to [Congress],” Gensaw continued. “Here, it’s life or death.”Gensaw said his family and people have fished on the Klamath River for generations. For the first time, Gensaw said he can no longer call himself a fishermen because he can no longer afford to be one.“We had our land stripped away from us, we had our rights to hunt and fish our lands taken away,” Gensaw said. “One of our last rights we have to provide for our family and live off the river is now being taken away from us.”California’s North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman said he voted against the spending bill on Thursday. This is the second time Congress did not include the relief funds since fishery disaster declarations were issued in January by then-Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker for the Yurok Tribe salmon season and West Coast crab seasons. Congress did not include the relief funds in a $1 trillion spending bill passed in May.“It is an outrage that House leadership blocked so many of our efforts to improve the bill, including my amendment to provide additional funding for those on the West Coast who are reeling from fishery disasters,” Huffman (D-San Rafael) said in a statement. Huffman and Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) had introduced two bills this year to provide nearly $140 million to aid crab fishermen and the Yurok Tribe. Huffman stated in a new release that House Republicans denied a chance for his amendments to the spending bill to go to a vote or even a debate on the floor. The spending bill for the 2018 fiscal year passed in a 211-198 vote. The current fiscal year will end on Sept. 30. Even though the Senate still must act, the government will keep operating through Dec. 8, thanks to legislation Congress passed last week and sent to President Donald Trump. Huffman said the bill will “thankfully” be dead on arrival in the Senate. House members spent the past two weeks debating the measure’s $500 billion for domestic agencies. GOP leaders then merged that domestic spending package with an earlier House measure that would give record budget increases to the Pentagon and provide a $1.6 billion down payment for Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.“It does everything from strengthening our national defense and veterans’ programs to cracking down on illegal immigration to protecting life to cutting abusive Washington agencies like the IRS and the EPA,” the No. 2 House Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California said Thursday. Speaker Paul Ryan. R-Wis., praised a pay raise for the military, border security funding, and “defunding” Planned Parenthood as victories for Republicans and Trump.Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Executive Director Noah Oppenheim said Saturday that there will still be chances for Congress to provide relief funding in the fall, and not just for hurricane relief.“Whether a disaster is two weeks old or two years old, it’s still a federal disaster and Congress needs to pay attention to them all regardless of what the cause was and where it was,” Oppenheim said.With this year’s commercial salmon season being cut short or cut altogether as was the case for the Klamath River, Oppenheim said many fishermen are continuing to struggle. Some fishermen have left the fleet altogether after racking up debts in preparation of a fishing season where little to no catch was made to help pay them off.“Without some sort of relief, we’re going to see some major shifts in outlook among the fleet, not for the better,” Oppenheim said.Gensaw said it is not a surprise that the federal government is not providing them relief, but said there is a still a need for the people of the river to come together to protect the salmon, the resources and each other.“It’s time for us as the people to bring balance back to this river by any means necessary,” he said. “The industrial revolution is over. It is now the restorative revolution. We will restore our partnerships with the people on the river, we will restore our environment and we will restore our people because that’s our only option.”The Associated Press contributed to this report. Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20170919/99992a32/attachment.html>