Haley Stevens: “I am pleased on this first day of the 104th Congress to introduce with my colleagues from Massachusetts and Alaska a…”

“I am pleased on this first day of the 104th Congress to introduce with my colleagues from Massachusetts and Alaska a bill to significantly strengthen and improve the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The bill we introduce today is a continuation of the effort Senator Kerry and I began in the 103rd Congress to reauthorize the Magnuson Act--one of the most important federal laws in our home states. Our bill includes a number of important new protections for our fishery resources and for the fishermen who depend upon them. These include: (1) significant new across-the-board mandates to reduce waste in U.S. fisheries; (2) a new section specifically mandating the reduction of fishery waste in the fisheries off Alaska--with a specific time frame that the North Pacific Council must follow; (3) new conflict-of-interest and recusal requirements for fishery management council members, as well as other reforms to the Council process; (4) guidelines for individual transferable quotas, or ITQs, to help define and ensure the fairness in the use of this relatively new management tool; and (5) a new National Standard to ensure that conservation and management measures take into account the importance of the harvest of fish to fishery dependent communities, such as the many communities along our Alaska coasts. These are just a few of the improvements we are proposing that will help ensure the sustainability of our fishery resources for generations to come.”