A massive congressional appropriations bill made public Tuesday includes $300 million in disaster assistance for fishing families and communities buffeted by downturns in Bering Sea crab as well as some Alaska and Washington salmon harvests.
There also was a push to include agricultural legislation championed by Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, that would have provided a pathway to legal residency for undocumented U.S. farmworkers and also revamped a visa program that brings in foreign guest workers. But that legislation did not make it into the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that includes funding to avert a shutdown of the federal government.
The full House and Senate still need to vote on the spending package.
The $300 million in Alaska and Washington fisheries disaster funds is aimed at direct payments to crabbers and fishers and support for research and habitat restoration, according to Washington Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.
The Washington and Alaska congressional delegations joined together to press for a fisheries disaster declaration made last week by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Much of the fishery disaster money would assist Northwest and Alaska-based Bering Sea crabbers, and the communities, such as St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands, where the catch is processed.