jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-09-16 00:00:00

Florida Fisheries Improvement Act - Amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) to revise requirements for fishery management in the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic.

 Gives regional fishery management councils authority to use alternative fishery management measures in a recreational fishery.

Revises requirements for fishery management plans, especially by exempting certain species from fishery rebuilding requirements, changing how to determine the timelines for rebuilding fisheries, and repealing the requirement for plans to contain catch limits for the red snapper.

Authorizes: (1) the collection of funds from fines, penalties, and forfeitures of property for violations of marine resource law to be used for the cost of stock assessments, surveys, and data collection on fisheries; and (2) a citizen owning or leasing an eligible fishery facilities to make an agreement with the Department of Commerce to establish a capital construction fund to provide for the acquisition or reconstruction of a facility.

Requires the Department to make a decision on whether there is a commercial fishery failure because of a fishery resource disaster within 90 days of a receiving a complete estimate of the economic impact of the disaster.

Requires the Gulf Council and the South Atlantic Council to review every five years the allocation of fishing privileges. Authorizes the Councils to delay the review for three one-year periods.

Directs the Department to: (1) arrange for the National Academy of Sciences to study the process of allocating fishing privileges; (2) develop and publish a plan to conduct stock assessments for all stocks of fish for which a MSA fishery management plan is in effect, unless the assessment is not necessary; and (3) report on facilitating greater incorporation of data, analysis, stock assessments, and surveys from nongovernmental sources.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-12-09 00:00:00

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2014 - Reauthorizes and revises the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), the Anadromous Fish Conservation Act, the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act of 1986, the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act, the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act, the Yukon River Salmon Act of 2000, the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act of 1975, and the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act through FY2021. Reauthorizes the South Pacific Tuna Act of 1988. Reauthorizes the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Convention Act of 1995 through FY2020.

 Extends permanently the authority of Washington, Oregon, and California to manage any Dungeness crab fishery that does not have a fishery management plan under the MSA and is in the exclusive economic zone adjacent to the state.

 Revises the MSA, including by:

 providing for the role of tribal governments in managing fish, adding subsistence fishing to the types of fishing managed under the Act, giving regional fishery management councils the authority to use alternative fishery management measures in a recreational fishery, providing for the management of depleted fisheries, increasing civil and criminal penalties, establishing a Fisheries Enforcement Fund, and revising requirements governing fishery management plans and regional fishery management councils.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-01-13 00:00:00

This bill prohibits the Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce from issuing a permit or in any other way authorizing commercial finfish aquaculture operations in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, except in accordance with a law enacted after enactment of this Act.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Commerce
Date: 2015-01-14 00:00:00

Prevention of Escapement of Genetically Altered Salmon in the United States Act 

This bill prohibits a person from:

 shipping, transporting, offering for sale, selling, or purchasing a genetically altered finfish, or a food product containing those fish, in commerce; having custody, control, or possession of those fish or food products with the intent to ship, transport, offer for sale, sell, or purchase them in commerce; engaging in net-pen aquaculture (pens of fish contained by nets) of those fish; releasing those fish into a natural environment; or having custody, control, or possession of those fish with the intent to release them into a natural environment. Fish, fish parts, or products confined for scientific research or collected to enforce this Act are exempted from the prohibition. An additional exemption is established if the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): (1) prepares a finding of no significant impact in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 after reviewing an application requesting a federal agency to permit activity prohibited by this Act, or (2) finds the application to be consistent with an environmental impact statement that includes an environmental risk analysis and specified assessments of costs and potential economic damage.

Each federal agency must promptly notify NOAA when an action involving those fish or food products is first identified by the agency.

The Department of Commerce may enforce penalties for violations of this Act under specified provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Animals
Date: 2015-01-27 00:00:00

Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act

 (Sec. 3) This bill amends the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to authorize the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to issue one-year permits to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission for the lethal taking on the waters of the Columbia River or its tributaries of sea lions that are part of a population that is not categorized as depleted or listed as an endangered or threatened species in order to protect endangered and threatened species of salmon and other nonlisted fish species. These permits may be renewed by NOAA.

The permits may authorize the lethal taking of 10 sea lions or fewer. The cumulative annual taking of sea lions each year under all such permits is limited to 1% of the annual potential biological removal level.

These permits are exempted from environmental review requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 for five years.

NOAA may suspend the issuance of such permits if, after five years, lethal removal authority is no longer necessary to protect salmonid and other fish species from sea lion predation.

Permit holders exercising lethal removal authority must be trained in wildlife management.

(Sec. 4) The bill: (1) states that it is a vital priority to prevent sea lions from preying on fish, recover listed salmonid stocks, and prevent future listings of fish stocks in the Columbia River; and (2) urges the federal government to fund lethal and nonlethal removal measures for preventing such predation.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-02-13 00:00:00

Red Snapper Regulatory Reform Act 

This bill amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to revise requirements on fishing and fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico.

The bill repeals a requirement that red snapper fishery management plans, plan amendments, or regulation submitted by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council contain catch limits.

State jurisdiction over fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico is expanded to nine nautical miles.

The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission must conduct all fishery stock assessments for fisheries managed under the Council's Reef Fish Management Plan. Stock assessments must: (1) incorporate fisheries survey information collected by universities; (2) use state, university, and private assets to conduct surveys; (3) incorporate surveys conducted on natural and artificial reefs; and (4) emphasize constituent and stakeholder participation in the development of the assessment.

The program created to improve the quality and accuracy of information generated by the Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey must take into consideration all fishery effort data collection activities undertaken by the marine resources division of each relevant state of the Council.

Members of the Council are no longer appointed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-03-02 00:00:00

Healthy Fisheries through Better Science Act

This bill amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to require the Department of Commerce to develop and publish a plan to conduct stock assessments for all stocks of fish for which a fishery management plan is in effect. A "stock assessment" is an evaluation of the past, present, and future status of a stock of fish, including: (1) a range of life history characteristics, including the stock's geographical boundaries, age, growth, natural mortality, sexual maturity and reproduction, feeding habits, and habitat preferences; and (2) fishing for the stock. The plan must be developed and published on the same schedule as required for the fisheries research strategic plan.

The plan must: (1) establish schedules for conducting initial stock assessments and updating previously conducted assessments, and (2) identify data and analysis that would reduce uncertainty in and improve the accuracy of future stock assessments. A stock assessment is not required for a stock of fish in the plan if Commerce determines that the assessment is not necessary and justifies the determination in the Federal Register notice.

Commerce must develop and publish in the Federal Register guidelines to incorporate data, analysis, and stock assessments from nongovernmental sources into fisheries management decisions and to establish a registry of information providers. Commerce and Regional Fishery Management Councils must use all data and analyses that meet the guidelines published as the best scientific information available in fisheries management decisions, unless otherwise determined by the science and statistical committees of the Councils.

Commerce may not collect certain fishing permit fees and North Pacific Council fisheries research plan implementation fees before identifying the costs that will be recovered by such fee.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-15 00:00:00

Fishing Economy Improvement Act

This bill revises and reauthorizes through FY2021 the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA).

In managing highly migratory species that frequent the exclusive economic zone adjoining U.S. territories, the Department of Commerce must ensure participation of the territories.

If funds in the Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund are attributable to a particular U.S. territory, they must be sent to the territory instead of the Western Pacific Council.

Fishery management plans must include descriptions of subsistence or small scale traditional fishing.

The bill makes permanent the authority of Washington, Oregon, and California to adopt and enforce state laws governing fishing and processing in the exclusive economic zone adjacent to their state in any Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) fishery for which there is no fishery management plan in effect under the MSA.

The bill provides for the use of electronic monitoring of fisheries and public participation in the fishery management process by requiring certain meetings be broadcasted online.

Commerce must publish a plan within a year for implementing and conducting the cooperative research and management program.

The Fisheries Conservation and Management Fund is renamed the Zeke Grader Fisheries Conservation and Management Fund.

Commerce must: (1) implement a real-time reporting and data collection program for the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery using available technology, and (2) develop a schedule of stock surveys and stock assessments for the Gulf of Mexico Region and the South Atlantic Region for the next five years and every 5-year period thereafter.

Commerce must: (1) establish partnerships with states to develop best practices for implementing state programs that collect data on recreational fisheries, and (2) provide grants to states to improve implementation of those programs.

Commerce may make grants to support programs that address certain needs of fishing communities.

Commerce is given 90 days to determine if a fishery resource disaster exists for fisheries that originate within the Central Valley Project service area.

Commerce must enter into an agreement with the United States Digital Service for the Service to make recommendations to modernize and streamline the fishery data collection, processing, analysis, and storage systems of the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Fluke Fairness Act 

This bill directs the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to submit for approval by the Department of Commerce a modified fishery management plan for the commercial and recreational management of summer flounder, or an amendment to the plan, that:

 is based on the best scientific information available; reflects changes in the distribution, abundance, and location of summer flounder in establishing distribution of the commercial and recreational catch quotas; considers regional, coastwide, or other management measures that comply with national standards under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act; and prohibits the allocation of catch quotas on a state-by-state basis using historical landings data that does not reflect the status of the summer flounder stock, based on the most recent scientific information. Commerce must prepare and approve a plan if the Council fails to submit the modifications or amendments.

The Government Accountability Office must assess and report on whether the subsequent implementation of the approved plan or amendment complies with national standards.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-23 00:00:00

This bill amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to authorize the Department of Commerce to make grants to support programs that address needs of fishing communities by: (1) providing health promotion and disease prevention services, (2) providing financial planning education and other services to improve the financial stability of families and small businesses, (3) supporting positive community response to tragedies at sea, or (4) providing workforce development training.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Animals
Date: 2015-04-28 00:00:00

Striped Bass American Heritage Act

This bill designates the Atlantic striped bass (Morone saxatilis) as the national fish.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-29 00:00:00

Fisheries Investment and Regulatory Relief Act of 2015

This bill amends the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act to revise the program under which the Department of Commerce provides financial assistance for fisheries research and development projects. Each Regional Fishery Management Council must establish a fishery investment committee to: (1) develop a regional fishery investment plan identifying research, conservation, management needs, and actions to rebuild and maintain healthy fish populations and sustainable fisheries over a five-year period; and (2) make recommendations to the council on grant applications and projects to implement those plans.

The plans must be revised and approved by the relevant council at least once every five years.

The grant program for fisheries research and development projects is replaced with a grant program to advance regional priorities included in those plans.

Commerce must carry out a national program of fisheries research and investment that supports rebuilding and maintaining healthy U.S. fish populations and promotes sustainable fisheries rather than a fisheries research and development program.

National fisheries investment program funds must be used for investing in U.S. fisheries rather than promoting the fisheries. Specified percentages of funding are allocated to the regional councils and marine fisheries commissions. The Department of Agriculture must transfer a certain amount of funds generated from duties collected on imported fish products for use only to strengthen regional fisheries management through the committees, plans, and grants.

Commerce must review the regulations and procedures used to implement title III of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and make recommendations for streamlining them.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-30 00:00:00

West Coast Dungeness Crab Management Act

This bill makes permanent the authority of Washington, Oregon, and California to adopt and enforce state laws governing fishing and processing in the exclusive economic zone adjacent to their state in any Dungeness crab fishery for which there is no fishery management plan in effect under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-05-05 00:00:00

National Mitigation Fisheries Coordination Act

This bill directs the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to impose a charge for conducting mitigation fishery activities in connection with federal water resources development projects carried out by water development agencies (the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, or the Tennessee Valley Authority). The agencies must pay the charge in accordance with a fishery mitigation plan developed and approved by the USFWS Director and the agency head.

"Mitigation fishery activities" are the rearing and stocking of native and nonnative fish to replace or maintain fishery resources or harvest levels lost as a result of a project, including project planning, population assessment and evaluation, genetic monitoring, broodstock development, and fish health sampling.

 USFWS's charges must be reasonably related to expenditures necessary to: (1) operate, maintain, and rehabilitate certain USFWS-owned and -operated mitigation fishery facilities, hatcheries, and health centers; and (2) conduct mitigation fishery activities, including expenditures for personnel, transportation, utilities, contractual services, fish feed, supplies, equipment, routine maintenance, deferred maintenance, fish eggs, technical support, fish health, management and administration, planning, outreach and education, and hatchery product evaluations.

The bill lists the applicable mitigation fishery facilities in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

Rhode Island Fishermen's Fairness Act 

This bill amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to add Rhode Island to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and increase Council membership from 21 to 23 members. The Council is not given authority over the fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean seaward of Rhode Island.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-07-16 00:00:00

Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority Act 

(Sec.2)This bill amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to direct the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)to establish a Gulf States Red Snapper Management Authority (GSRSMA) that consists of the principal fisheries manager of each of the five Gulf of Mexico coastal states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The GSRSMA must:

 establish a deadline for each Gulf coastal state to submit to the GSRSMA a fishery management plan for the long-term sustainability of Gulf of Mexico red snapper, review those plans and approve them if they meet the requirements of this bill, provide standards for each Gulf coastal state to use in developing fishery management measures to sustainably manage the Gulf of Mexico red snapper in the coastal waters adjacent to the state, and provide an opportunity for public participation before approving a plan. For three years, the NMFS must continue to manage the commercial sector of the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery in coordination with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

The bill establishes a plan certification process. After the three-year period and once a plan is certified, the NMFS must transfer management of the Gulf of Mexico red snapper to the GSRSMA. Each Gulf coastal state must then implement and enforce approved plans for the fishery in the coastal waters adjacent to it.

If the Gulf of Mexico red snapper in the coastal waters adjacent to a Gulf coastal state is experiencing overfishing or is subject to a rebuilding plan, the state must certify to the GSRSMA that it has implemented the necessary measures to end overfishing or rebuild the fishery and has implemented a harvest monitoring program. A process is established for closing a red snapper fishery within the waters adjacent to the state territorial waters of the Gulf coastal state if those measures have not been implemented.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-07-29 00:00:00

Preserving Public Access to Public Waters Act

This bill directs the Department of the Interior and the Department of Commerce to obtain approval from the relevant fish and wildlife management agency of a state or territory before restricting fishing access to state or territorial marine waters that are within the jurisdiction of the National Park Service or the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, including coastal waters and estuaries.
Topic: Agriculture — Fisheries & Fishing
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-09-16 00:00:00

Gulf Red Snapper Data Improvement Act

This bill requires the National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Regional Office to award grants for data collection that is used in stock assessments for reef fish species in the Gulf of Mexico, including the red snapper. In awarding grants, the Office must seek to improve stock assessments through innovative approaches to data collection that incorporates data from peer-reviewed research involving academia, fishermen, and other fisheries sources.

The Department of Commerce must: (1) seek to improve communications by the National Marine Fisheries Service with stakeholders regarding the reef fish species stock assessment processes and outcomes of those processes, and (2) develop a process for using data collected through cooperative research activities for those stock assessments.