[StBernard] Times Picayune Editorial Supports LRA Position Calling on NOAA to Reconsider Funding Formula

[Westley Annis]

Times Picayune Editorial Supports LRA Position Calling on NOAA to Reconsider Funding Formula



BATON ROUGE, La. (April 22, 2007) -- The New Orleans Times Picayune published an editorial Wednesday in support of the Louisiana Recovery Authority's (LRA) position calling on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to reconsider its funding formula for distributing $85 million in disaster relief funds for the Gulf Coast fishing and shrimping communities. 

Under the currently proposed allocation for distributing these funds Louisiana stands to receive less than half the amount of funding available, which directly contradicts NOAA's own assessments that Katrina's financial impact on Louisiana's fishing industry is $2.1 billion, which is two and a half times more damage sustained in Mississippi and nearly 75 times the amount estimated in Alabama.

LRA Board Member Rene Cross sent a letter to Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, National Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator in June requesting NOAA to allocate disaster relief funds based on need and actual damages incurred by each state. Click here to download a PDF of the letter. <http://lra.louisiana.gov/assets/LRAlettertoNOAAonSupplemental.pdf> 

Louisiana's Congressional Delegation also submitted a letter to Vice Admiral Lautenbacher which made the same request and reaffirmed Congress' intent to "allocate these funds based on an assessment of the disaster-recovery related needs of the fishing and shrimping communities in those states most affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita." Click here to download a PDF of the letter. <http://landrieu.senate.gov/news/fish.pdf> 

The full editorial from the Times Picayune is below.

EDITORIAL: Raw deal for state fisheries

Louisiana is getting the largest share of federal money to revive the Gulf Coast fishing industry, but that doesn't mean it's a fair share. 

This state accounted for 75 percent of the Gulf seafood catch before Katrina, and our hurricane-related losses far outstripped those of other states. A report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put Louisiana's losses at $1.8 billion, compared to $700 million in Mississippi. 

But despite the size of Louisiana's industry and the extent of the damage it sustained, this state is getting less than half of the $85 million Congress has appropriated to revive the Gulf Coast fishing industry. Louisiana's 48 percent share compares to 30 percent for Mississippi and 18 percent for Alabama. 

The National Marine Fisheries Service, which is under NOAA, divided up the money, and it's hard to understand why the agency didn't follow the will of Congress. The relief bill specifically states that money should be distributed according to fishing industry needs in each state. Louisiana's needs are far greater than those of other states, and that should be reflected in the allocation of the money. 

Instead, the fisheries service is doing things like giving a combined $3.2 million to Florida and Texas, states that NOAA didn't even include in its report on hurricane damage to Gulf Coast fisheries. 

Gary Reisner, chief financial officer for the NOAA fisheries service, points out that Louisiana could have received even less. When Gulf state fisheries officials met this spring, some representatives pushed to use the same formula for dividing the money that was used in the first hurricane relief bill -- a formula that Louisiana officials had criticized at the time. Only one person at the meeting objected, John Roussel, assistant secretary for fisheries at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. 

If that formula had been used, Louisiana's $41 million share would have decreased by $4 million. But the fisheries service decided to reject that recommendation in order to give more money to Louisiana, Mr. Reisner said. 

Thanks for that. But it's hard to feel grateful when a federal agency decides to shortchange Louisiana -- just not by quite as much as its neighbors had hoped. 

Reviving the Gulf Coast fishing industry can't happen if the state that has the largest share of that industry is given proportionately less money. NOAA needs to take a look at its own data and reconsider this decision. 

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