Congressional Personality Disorder

Ill-Advised Hatchery Funding and BPA Bailout Temper Historic Investments in Habitat Restoration and Climate Change Resilience

Eyed up salmon in plastic trays at the hatchery. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Congress is setting records for delivering funding to the Pacific Northwest aimed at ecosystem restoration for wild salmon and steelhead as well as coastal communities facing climate change impacts. Congress also provides supportive funding for monitoring, population assessments and research.

However, these important and hopefully helpful funding packages will be blunted by two controversial provisions that set the status quo in cement - preventing the good from being realized from these historic efforts.

As previous reported, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell provided the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) with a $10 billion line of credit - rescuing them from poor power and transmission mismanagement decisions over the past decade and further delaying right-sizing and retiring this obsolete and unaccountable federal power marketing agency. Here is a great critique of this absolute pork barrel provision.

Finally, in a final bleat of socialized fishery management, Congress is poised to provide NOAA with $400 million to fund grant programs for state and tribal hatchery repair, replacement and enhancement. The Conservation Angler and our allies delivered a Coalition letter opposing the hatchery funding package.

These funds will be administered by NOAA to support salmon fisheries under the Magnuson - Stevens Fisheries Management Act.

Other organizations provided very thoughtful opposition to other portions of the larger bill but these appear to be too little too late to change status quo management.