The Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCMA, 16 U.S.C. §§1801 et seq.) governs the management and conservation of commercial and recreational fisheries in U.S. federal waters (3-200 nautical miles from shore). Although the MSFCMA has been amended a least 30 times since it was enacted in 1976, the act has retained many of its original elements. The act decentralized the federal management process by setting up regional fishery management councils and requiring extensive public comment during the development of fishery management plans. The MSFCMA also has evolved with changes to fishery resources, the U.S. fishing industry, recreational fishing, and seafood markets. Generally, the challenges of fisheries management have shifted from developing fisheries to addressing conservation of fish populations and the marine environment. The MSFCMA was last reauthorized and extensively amended in 2006 ( P.L. 109-479 ). Although the authorization of appropriations under the MSFCMA expired at the end of FY2013, the act's requirements continue in effect and Congress has continued to appropriate funds to administer the act. Historically, reauthorization has also provided the opportunity to introduce significant amendments to the act. As Congress considers reauthorization, it faces the ongoing challenge of balancing utilization and conservation of fish populations. Some of the main questions revolve around stopping overfishing and rebuilding fish stocks while maintaining the well-being of fishermen and fishing communities. Related management issues involve the quality of data and stock assessments used for managing fisheries and the amount of flexibility allowed in the management process. During the last three Congresses, a number of bills have been introduced to address these issues and other concerns related to fisheries management. House and Senate committees have been pursuing efforts to reauthorize the MSFCMA during the 113 th Congress. Oversight and reauthorization hearings have been held by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Natural Resources. In December 2013, the Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources released a reauthorization discussion draft. The draft includes several sections that reflect topics covered by bills introduced in previous sessions of Congress. In early April 2014, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation also released a draft to stakeholder groups. An ongoing issue for managers, fishermen, and environmentalists is the balance between conservation and utilization of fish populations. Although there is general agreement that stocks should not be overfished and overfished stocks should be rebuilt, questions remain with regard to the timing of management actions, the choice of management objectives, how stock management objectives should be achieved, and the information needed to make these determinations. Several interrelated issues have emerged during the ongoing debate over requirements to use annual catch limits (ACLs) and to rebuild fish populations. General categories of issues include (1) providing for greater flexibility during stock rebuilding; (2) incorporating new data and uncertainty when using ACLs; (3) improving the decision-making process; (4) establishing limited access privileges; and (5) reducing bycatch. Meanwhile, managers must also contend with environmental factors over which they often have no control such as climate change and the loss and degradation of fish habitat. Decreasing environmental quality may be the greatest long-term threat to the productivity of many fish populations. Flexibility in rebuilding overfished fisheries has become one of the main issues of the current MSFCMA reauthorization debate. The MSFCMA was amended to require development and use of ACLs to end overfishing for all federally managed stocks in the 2010 fishing year. Overfished stocks are required to have rebuilding plans that adhere to a 10-year timeframe (with some exceptions). Previously, managers often delayed action or set indirect controls on fishing such as gear restrictions or closed areas, sometimes with disastrous results for the fishery. RFMCs and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are now required to set ACLs (quotas) within specific biologically determined levels. Fishery management plans (FMPs) must be consistent with the 10 national standards in Section 301(a) of the MSFCMA. Council members must address the national standards as they develop FMPs and, when considering approval, the Secretary of Commerce determines whether FMPs are consistent with these national standards. The national standards cover a broad range of basic fishery management objectives. The first National Standard Section 301(a)(1) states: "Conservation and management measures shall prevent overfishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery for the United States fishing industry." Provisions of the MSFCMA enacted during the 1996 reauthorization and amended during the 2006 reauthorization added specific requirements to end overfishing and to rebuild overfished fish stocks. To implement these requirements, the MSFCMA directed the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to update National Standard 1 guidelines by 2008 to provide guidance for establishing annual catch limits (ACLs) and related biological benchmarks. On January 16, 2009, NMFS issued guidelines that describe fishery management approaches to meet the objectives of National Standard 1 with emphasis on new requirements to end overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks. While implementing ACL requirements, NMFS has identified a number of issues that may require additional revisions to the National Standard 1 guidelines. On May 3, 2012 NOAA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to request public comments on potential adjustments to the guidelines. No further action has been taken since the Summary of Comments on Advanced Rulemaking was published. The terms overfishing and overfished are often confused and assumed to occur together, but this is not necessarily the case. According to the National Standard Guidelines: overfishing occurs whenever a stock or stock complex is subjected to a rate or level of fishing mortality that jeopardizes the capacity of a stock or complex to produce Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) on a continuing basis. A stock or stock complex is considered overfished when its biomass has declined below a level that jeopardizes the capacity of the stock or stock complex to produce MSY on a continuing basis. Overfishing occurs when the rate of removals (catch or harvest) is high relative to the size of the fish stock; fish stocks are overfished when their biomass is relatively low. At certain points during rebuilding, removals may be low (no overfishing), but the stock is still overfished (its biomass is not yet rebuilt). Conversely, removals may be high and overfishing may be occurring, but the stock biomass has not declined to the point at which the stock is considered to be overfished. Stock rebuilding has become controversial because rebuilding timeframes have required strict constraints on harvest levels. Some have questioned whether greater flexibility in determining the length of stock rebuilding periods could increase economic benefits from the fishery. Rebuilding plans with greater flexibility could also contribute to other fishery management goals such as needs of fishing communities (National Standard 8). Overfishing has been arrested in most U.S. fisheries and progress has been made in rebuilding many others. As of December 31, 2013, of the 300 stocks with a known overfishing status, 28 stocks were subject to overfishing and of the 230 stocks with a known overfished status, 40 stocks are classified as overfished. NOAA also reported that 34 fish stocks have been rebuilt since 2000. According to a recent National Research Council (NRC) study, "fishing mortality of stocks placed under rebuilding plans has generally been reduced and stock biomass has generally increased following reductions in fishing mortality." However, these improvements have sometimes come at a cost to commercial and recreational fishermen and associated fishing communities, and in some cases stocks have not responded to management actions as managers anticipated. The NRC study attributed some of the mixed performance of rebuilding plans to scientific uncertainty and a mismatch between policy makers' expectations for scientific precision and the inherent limits of science. The NRC study adds that mixed outcomes of rebuilding plans have "added to concerns with the significant social and economic costs associated with implementation of time-constrained rebuilding plans." Fishermen and fishing communities sometimes suffer from economic and social effects of harvest restrictions needed to satisfy MSFCMA overfishing and stock rebuilding requirements. Many question whether these requirements adequately address the complexities and uncertainties associated with managing fish stocks. Often fishermen express doubt over the efficacy of fish population assessments used for developing management measures because of data constraints and inadequate population models. Furthermore, they refer to studies showing that other factors, often outside the immediate control of fisheries managers, such as environmental conditions and the quality of fish habitat, also affect fish population abundance. Others, including environmentalists and fishery managers, counter that overfishing and previous management failures illustrate the need to maintain established fish stock rebuilding schedules. They emphasize that relatively short-term sacrifices today will result in long-term economic gains to recreational and commercial fishermen in the future. They point to stocks that have been rebuilt since 2000 and cite notable examples of fully rebuilt stocks such as Northeast scallop, Mid-Atlantic bluefish, and Pacific lingcod. Environmentalists also have asserted that many species could be rebuilt within 5 years and that the 10-year requirement is a balance between biology of most species and short-term concerns of some managers and fishermen. Exceptions have been provided for many species that have rebuilding timeframes greater than 10 years because of their life history. Others contend that the 10-year rebuilding timeframe is arbitrary and that the lack of flexibility prevents regulators from pursuing a more balanced approach. Economists and social scientists have questioned whether rebuilding plans that ignore the unique characteristics of each fishery, such as social and economic considerations, may result in significant loss of social welfare. They contend that stock rebuilding targets should not be based solely on biological factors.