Oversight Hearing: Hearing on Exploring the Successes and Challenges of the Magnuson-Stevens Act

Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans Date: Wednesday, July 19, 2017 Time: 02:00 PM Location: Longworth House Office Building 1324

DEMOCRATIC TOP-LINE MESSAGES

Fisheries management in the United States has been highly successful under the Magnuson Stevens Act (MSA), and there is already a great deal of flexibility in the law. In places where the fishing industry is struggling, those struggles are due to a lack of fish, not a lack of fishing opportunity.
Under reforms enacted over the past two decades, most U.S. fisheries have grown more profitable and many overfished stocks have rebuilt, thanks to science based catch limits, accountability measures and rebuilding plans. Committee Republicans have passed bills each of the last two congresses to roll back these standards.
While there is room for improvement and modernization of the MSA, Committee Republicans have chosen to use reauthorization of this traditionally bipartisan law to advance their agenda of undermining bedrock conservation laws like NEPA, the ESA, and the Antiquities Act.