Both houses of Congress on Wednesday passed a Coast Guard bill that includes a three-year moratorium on vessel discharge regulations for boats 79 feet and smaller. The bill now goes to the president’s desk for his signature. If the moratorium hadn’t passed, Alaska’s fishing fleet would have had to comply with new regulations the industry claims are unworkable.
Sen. Barbara Boxer’s bill would’ve lifted the small vessel discharge regulations entirely, but the California Democrat said she had to settle for a three-year reprieve.
“It’s the best we can do. And I want the American people and the fishermen to know we tried so hard to get this fixed permanently,” Boxer said, speaking from the Senate floor.
Republican Sen. David Vitter from Louisiana offered the three-year fix the Senate passed. He didn’t explain why that was preferable to permanently lifting the regulation for fishing boats and other commercial vessels. Sen. Boxer alleges lawmakers aim to use the measure as future leverage.
“I don’t really think they’re objections to the permanency,” Boxer said. “They’re political objections, to try to use this to get some other bad stuff attached to it!”
In Congress, the small vessel discharge regulations have been politically linked to rules for ship ballast water. Boxer has insisted on strict rules for ballast water, which can transfer non-native, invasive species from one port to another.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski says the discharge regulations would affect thousands of Alaska’s commercial fishermen. Murkowski says she’ll work for a permanent fix when the new Congress convenes in January.
“We don’t need to inject this uncertainty of our hard-working fishing families. We need to have a permanent solution,” she said.
Murkowski says it will require addressing the ballast water problem, too.
