Tag Archives: Don Young

Offshore wind lobby warns of bill’s ‘existential threat’

One of the nation’s largest renewable energy trade groups warned in a letter to Senate leadership this week that a House-approved bill could endanger virtually every planned offshore wind project in the country. Sent Wednesday by the American Clean Power Association, the letter took aim at a provision of the “Don Young Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2022,” which cleared the House by a wide margin in March and has yet to be considered by the Senate. The bill’s provision would establish nationality requirements for crew members who work on offshore energy projects in the United States. Crew members would have to be American citizens or permanent residents or citizens of the same country where their vessel is flagged. >click to read< 08:10

Commerce Determinations Clear the Way for Alaska Fisheries to Receive Relief Funds

U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Don Young, all R-Alaska, today welcomed determinations from the Department of Commerce that fishery disasters have occurred in numerous Alaska fisheries, allowing Alaska fishermen to receive critical relief funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The funding can be distributed to fishermen and their crews, seafood processors, and research initiatives in the impacted regions. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo today issued determinations that fisheries disasters occurred in fourteen different fisheries->click to read< 09:30

Democrats And Republicans Debate Changes To Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Act

Everyone needs to watch this. You should be alarmed. >click to watch. 09:33

MSA reauthorization still stalled with 2018 House bill expired

More than a decade has passed since the last reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act was signed into law, but the latest effort has stalled in Congress. The act, originally passed in 1974, is the nation’s landmark legislation on federal fisheries policy. In the intervening years, Congress has passed a number of reauthorizations, most recently in 2006, tweaking language and adding provisions. The House passed HR 200, sponsored by Rep. Don Young, in July 2018. However, it never progressed through the Senate and thus expired at the end of the 115th Congress. >click to read<11:13

Rep. Young fights fish farms

In his 46 years as Alaska’s lone representative in Congress, Don Young helped toss out foreign fishing fleets from Alaska waters with the onset of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976, and today he is intent on doing the same with offshore fish farms. The MSA established an ‘exclusive economic zone’ for US fleets fishing from three to 200 miles from shore. Young’s effort follows a push that began a year ago by over 120 aquaculture and food-related industries to have lawmakers introduce an Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act, which failed to get any traction. The campaign is organized under a new trade group called Stronger America Through Seafood and includes Cargill, Red Lobster, Pacific Seafoods and Seattle Fish Company.  >click to read<15:50

House passes recreational fishery bill; Rep. Young votes against

Two days after the Senate voted unanimously to pass a revised version of the legislation U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) proposed, the House’s vote, too, was overwhelming. However, in the 350-11 tally one name stood out among the “No” votes: U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).,, “After H.R. 200 passed out of the House in July, Congressman Young worked to ensure any fisheries legislation that gained support would have meaningful updates for both the recreational and commercial sectors,” >click to read<

Senator Dan Sullivan Applauds Senate Passage of American Fisheries Advisory Committee Act

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is applauding the Senate passage of S. 1322, the American Fisheries Advisory Committee Act, bipartisan legislation he introduced alongside Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to create an Advisory Committee to assist in the awarding of fisheries marketing, research, and development grants. Alaska Congressman Don Young is the sponsor of companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.,, S. 1322, the American Fisheries Advisory Committee Act unanimously passed the Senate on August 22, 2018 with a clarifying amendment offered by Senator Dan Sullivan and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA). The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. >click to read<11:09

H.R. 200 – More than one way to manage the nation’s fisheries

For the first time ever, reauthorization of the nation’s overarching marine fishery management law will take into account concerns of America’s recreational anglers. In mid-December, the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources approved H.R. 200, a bill sponsored by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, amending the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. While the vast majority of the public hails progress on the bill as long overdue, an unusual coalition of environmentalists and commercial fishing entities has roundly condemned it, feverishly depicting the bill as an attack on the oceans and a threat to the future of the nation’s marine resources. >click here to read< 20:57

MSA Reauthorization – Fishing rule reforms debated on Capitol Hill

How large of a role should the federal government have in regulating fishing fleets? Republicans and Democrats on the House Committee on Natural Resources discussed this question Tuesday in Washington, D.C., as part of renewed efforts to reauthorize and potentially amend a 40-year-old law that works to prevent overfishing and provide aid to fishing fleets.,, Several changes to the law have been made since 1996, such as setting annual catch limits and a 10-year timeline to rebuild overfished or depleted fish stocks. Republican committee members such as Alaska Rep. Don Young said these changes have taken a one-size-fits-all approach rather than provide more flexibility for regional fishery management councils to manage their own fisheries. click here to read the story 09:47

Watch Legislative Hearing on 4 Fishery Bills – click here for video

House Bill Aims to Help Young People Enter Commercial Fishing Industry

A bipartisan bill has been introduced by the House of Representatives to establish the first national program to help young men and women enter the commercial fishing industry. The legislation, introduced by Congressmen Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Don Young (R-AK), would provide up to $2 million a year in grant funding through NOAA’s Sea Grant Program. “This bill is designed to allow the next generation of fishermen, or people who want to get into the fishing industry, to receive training to become successful businessmen or women,” said John Pappalardo, the CEO of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. Representatives from the Alliance will head to Washington D.C. later this month to join other groups from the Fishing Communities Coalition to lobby lawmakers. “We will be walking Capitol Hill for a couple of days talking about this bill,” Pappalardo said. click here to read the story 16:26

Don Young hits term limit for House subcommittee chairmanship

Alaska’s sole congressman, Don Young, will not chair any committees or subcommittees during this term of Congress, having reached term limits in all of his prior positions. Young will retain some leadership positions and remains the longest-serving Republican in the House. Since 1994, Republicans in the House and Senate have imposed six-year term limits on committee leadership. Instead, this year Young was named “chairman emeritus” of the Committee on Natural Resources. The position allows him to sit on all five subcommittees, which oversee federal lands and the resources located on them, oceans, Native affairs and related investigations. Read the story here 13:05

House committee takes up fisheries bill today

The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources will take up a bill Thursday that could potentially change the way fisheries are managed in the U.S. through an amendment to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Yes. For the better! “We’ve been working for seven years to get some flexibility in the Magnuson-Stevens Act,” (Pam) Anderson said. “It’s desperately needed.” Read the rest here 08:08

Don Young: Stosh Anderson misrepresents Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization

The April 8 opinion piece by Stosh Anderson, “Don Young seeks to unwind ‘Alaska Model’ for fisheries in Magnuson-Stevens Act,” fails to represent the facts of the legislation I introduced to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). The issue, which was clearly ignored in Stosh Anderson’s commentary, is the application of the “Alaska Model” to the nation’s seven other regional fisheries councils, which was done in 2006 through amendments to the MSA. While the premise of the reform was good, the “Alaska Model” has not worked in other areas of the country as well as envisioned — for a number of reasons. Read the rest here 14:27

Congressman Don Young plans to file for re-election

Alaska’s lone U.S. House member is seeking a 22nd term.

continued@ktoo