Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

S. 2197. A bill to amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to clarify the status of certain communities in the western Alaska community development quota program; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, as residents of sparsely populated State with great natural resources but severe poverty in many of its rural areas, Alaskans have engaged in a variety of social and economic exercises intended to improve the living standard and expand economic opportunities for our most challenged communities.

I rise today to introduce a bill to ensure that one of the most successful of those exercises is allowed to continue. I am pleased to say the measure is also cosponsored by Alaska's senior senator.

The CDQ Community Preservation Act is intended to maintain the participation of all currently eligible communities along the shore of the Bering Sea in Alaska's Community Development Quota program. It is necessary because inconsistencies in statutory and regulatory provisions may require a reassessment of eligibility and the exclusion of some communities from the program. This was not the intent of the original program, nor of any subsequent changes to it. In order to clarify that fact, a legislative remedy is needed.

The Community Development Quota Program began in 1992, at the recommendation of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, one of the regional councils formed under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Congress gave the program permanent status in the 1996 reauthorization of the Act.

The program presently includes 65 communities within a 50 nautical-mile radius of the Bering Sea, which have formed six regional non-profit associations to participate in the program. The regional associations range in size from one to 20 communities. Under the program, a portion of the regulated annual harvests of pollock, halibut, sablefish, Atka mackerel, Pacific cod, and crab is assigned to each association, which operate under combined Federal and State agency oversight. Almost all of an association's earnings must be invested in fishing-related projects in order to encourage a sustainable economic base for the region.

Typically, each association sells its share of the annual harvest quotas to established fishing companies in return for cash and agreements to provide job training and employment opportunities for residents of the region. The program has been remarkably successful.

Since 1992, approximately 9,000 jobs have been created for western Alaska residents with wages totaling more than $60 million. The CDQ program has also contributed to fisheries infrastructure development in western Alaska, as well as providing vessel loan programs; education, training and other CDQ-related benefits.

The CDQ program has its roots in the amazing success story of how our offshore fishery resources were Americanized after the passage of the original Magnuson Act in 1976. At the time, vast foreign fishing fleets were almost the only ones operating in the U.S. 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone. American fishermen simply did not have either the vessels or the expertise to participate.

The Magnuson Act changed all that. It led to the adoption of what we called a "fish and chips" policy that provided for an exchange of fish allocations for technological and practical expertise. Within the next few years, harvesting fell almost exclusively to American vessels. Within a few years after that, processing almost became Americanized. Today, there are no foreign fishing or processing vessels operating in the 200-mile zone off Alaska, and the industry is worth billions of dollars each year.

The CDQ program helps bring some of the benefits of that great industry to local residents in one of the most impoverished areas of the entire country. It is a vital element in the effort to create and maintain a lasting economic base for the region's many poor communities, and truly deserves the support of this body.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of my bill be printed in the RECORD.