Coalition Asks Congress to Stop National Oceans Policy Funding

(04/12/2012) Eighty-one groups submitted a letter to U.S. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (KY), as well as the Chairperson of each House Appropriations Subcommittee, asking that language be included in all Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations bills that would prohibit the use of funds to implement the new National Ocean Policy. The request was made as part of an effort to achieve a pause in policy implementation that would provide more time for oversight and examination of potential impacts.

The letter's signatories listed below represent a wide array of commercial and recreational interests and reflect the breadth of concern that citizens and businesses across the United States continue to have about the National Ocean Policy as developed thus far. A PDF copy of the letter is available here.

Included in the list of groups signing on to support the "pause in policy implementation" through funding appropriations is the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA).

Today's transmittal follows correspondence sent last week from U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA) to Chairman Rogers, requesting that language be included in each Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations bill that would prohibit the use of funds to implement the National Ocean Policy.

In an email blast to members last week, RFA executive director Jim Donofrio called the National Oceans Policy (NOP) "a complete takeover of our state rights," which he said "should not be supported by either party."

In supporting the letter sent by Chairman Hastings, RFA cited Donofrio's testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee in 2011 in which he said "It seems counterproductive to advance and fund the NOP when it will stifle job growth in the fishing sectors."