The House

Fishery Program

A bill to extend a Great Society-vintage commercial and sport fishery program that President Reagan wants to terminate has been passed by the House and sent to the Senate on a vote of 268 for and 133 against.

The measure (HR 1025) extends the Anadromous Fish Conservation Act for three years, through fiscal 1988, at a cost of $7.5 million annually. Anadromous fish, Rep. Walter Jones (D-N.C.) said, “are fish that migrate from the ocean to fresh water to spawn,” such as salmon, striped bass and shad.

Enacted in 1965, the law pays at least half the cost of a variety of federal-state programs aimed chiefly at increasing the stocks of spawning fish.

Supporter Norman Lent (R-N.Y.) said that in opposing the program the Administration “disregards the many benefits that anadromous fishery resources provide to the nation through the activities of the country’s sport and commercial fishermen.”

Opponent Robert Walker (R-Pa.) said: “We keep overspending and overspending and overspending (and) it all adds up to the spending that goes into the deficit that we are now faced with.”

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) x Rep. Berman (D) x Rep. Fiedler (R) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Waxman (D) x

Fish Research

By a vote of 252 for and 149 against, the House failed to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to pass a bill (HR 1028) to fund research at the nation’s several dozen fisheries.

Sponsors said they will take the bill back to the floor under normal parliamentary procedures, which require only a simple majority for passage. The bill seeks to repeal the Commercial Fisheries Research and Development Act, which the Administration has criticized as unwarranted federal intrusion--and spending--in areas that are the responsibility of private enterprise and state governments.

In effect, it would repeal all of that law except for research functions and a few other provisions. It proposes spending $5 million annually on research and $2.5 million in emergency aid to commercial fisheries hit by natural disasters.

Supporter Don Young (R-Alaska) said: “We should cut the budget, but this is an area that needs to be financed.”

Opponent Robert Walker (R-Pa.) said: “This is how we add onto those deficits.”

Members voting yes wanted to enact a new research and disaster aid program for fisheries.

How They Voted Yea Nay No vote Rep. Beilenson (D) x Rep. Berman (D) x Rep. Fiedler (R) x Rep. Moorhead (R) x Rep. Waxman (D) x