Congressmen John Tierney (D-MA) released the following response to the Commerce Department's disaster relief declaration today.
"While I am pleased the Department of Commerce has finally issued a formal disaster declaration for our fishing community, it should have happened much sooner and not have required so many requests from me, my colleagues in Congress, and other interested stakeholders. I am committed to working with my Senate and House colleagues as quickly and aggressively as I can to get Congress to appropriate the necessary disaster funding for our fishermen, but by issuing this declaration with only a few legislative days remaining before the November elections Commerce did not give us much time to act. Still, I will be urging Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Reid to immediately bring forward legislation that provides this relief and I'm sure my Senate and House colleagues will join in that effort. Our fishing community has been waiting long enough," Congressman Tierney said.