Endangered Species Act Transparency & Helping Fisheries

Endangered Species Act Transparency & Helping Fisheries

Endangered Species Act Transparency & Helping Fisheries plus Are We Headed for Another Dust Bowl. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

The House Natural Resources Committee held a Full Committee legislative hearing Tuesday on four straightforward bills to update the Endangered Species Act for the 21st century and improve species recovery. Congressman Doc Hastings says it was a good hearing.

HASTINGS: No body said definitively that transparency in the Endangered Species Act should not be something we should strive for. I thought that was good. Of the four bills we introduced, two of them deal largely with transparency so I thought that was a very good first step. Now it was predictable from the environmental left that they characterized those bill as gutting the Endangered Species Act, nothing could be further from the truth, however.

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee yesterday passed legislation sponsored by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell that would help boost the West Coast groundfish fishery and protect maritime jobs. The Revitalizing the Economy of Fisheries in the Pacific Act aims to help fishermen by ensuring they receive the same interest rates on federal loans as other businesses, and extends the length of these loans from 30 to 45 years. In addition, the legislation caps the fees that NOAA is able to collect from fishermen.

Now there are a few American's that still remember the Dust Bowl days of the Dirty 30's. Gary Crawford has more.

(USDA Report)

Thanks Gary. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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