Hill Heat

On Thursday, July 27, 2023, at 10:15 a.m. in room 1334 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:

• H.R. 1437 (Rep. Rose), “Black Vulture Relief Act of 2023”, to authorize livestock producers and their employees to kill black vultures;
• H.R. 1792 (Rep. Radewagen), “South Pacific Tuna Treaty Act of 2023”;
• H.R. 2950 (Rep. Huffman), “Coastal Habitat Conservation Act of 2023”;
• H.R. 2982 (Rep. Tonko), “New York-New Jersey Watershed Protection Act”;
• H.R. 4051 (Rep. Wittman), “SHARKED Act” (Supporting the Health of Aquatic Systems through Research, Knowledge and Enhanced Dialogue Act), backed by sportfishing lobby;
• H.R. 4094 (Rep. Curtis), “Great Salt Lake Stewardship Act”;
• H.R. 4587 (Rep. Rutherford) “Red Snapper Act”, to provide that the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shall not issue an interim or final rule that includes an area closure in the South Atlantic for species managed under the Snapper-Grouper Fishery Management Plan until the South Atlantic Great Red Snapper Count study is complete and the data related to that study is integrated into the stock assessment; and
• H.R. 4596 (Rep. Boebert), ‘‘Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act of 2023’’, to reauthorize the Bureau of Reclamation to provide cost-shared funding to implement the endangered and threatened fish recovery programs for the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins.

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

Panel I (Bill Sponsors):

• Rob Wittman, Representative from the First District of Virginia
• Amata Radewagen, Representative from American Samoa
• John Curtis, Representative from the Third District of Utah
• Lauren Boebert, Representative from the Third District of Colorado
• John Rutherford, Representative from the Fifth District of Florida
• Paul Tonko, Representative from the Twentieth District of New York
• John Rose, Representative from the Sixth District of Tennessee
• Jared Huffman, Representative from the Second District of California

Panel II (Administration witnesses):

• Dr. Kelly Kryc, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington, DC
• Stephen Guertin, Deputy Director for Program Management and Policy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, DC

Panel III (Advocates):

• William Gibbons-Fly, Executive Director, American Tunaboat Association, San Diego, CA [H.R.1792]
• Jack Graham, Captain, Afishianado Charters, Nags Head, NC [H.R. 4051]
• Jessica McCawley, Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries Management, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tallahassee, FL [H.R. 4587]
• Gene Shawcroft, General Manager of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, Orem, UT [H.R.4094]
• Steve Wolff, General Manager, Southwestern Water Conservation District, Durango, CO [H.R. 4596]
• Charlie Besher, Property Rights and Environmental Management Committee Chair, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Patton, MO [H.R. 1437]
• Genevieve Genest, Donor Relations Manager, Galveston Bay Foundation, Kemah, TX [H.R. 2950] [Democratic witness]
• Seth Atkinson, Quillback Consulting, Santa Cruz, CA [H.R. 4587] [Democratic witness]