Logjam in Congress may push fisheries legislation into 2008

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061118fishlaw.html

Time is running out for Congress to rewrite the nation's fisheries law during the current lame-duck session, and if they fail to act within the next few weeks, procedural rules could prevent lawmakers from passing a bill until at least 2008.

Congress has been working on the complex legislation for several years, and a lengthy delay would hurt New England's struggling groundfishermen, said George Lapointe, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

He said the Magnuson-Stevens Act, a 30-year-old law that governs how fish are managed in federal waters, needs to be updated to make fisheries management less cumbersome. Proposed legislation also would elevate the role of science in setting annual catch limits.

"This has been lingering for three years," Lapointe said. "Taking extra time doesn't benefit us very much."

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