The chairman of a congressional subcommittee has announced plans for an oversight hearing on federal fisheries law enforcement, which has been acknowledged by the head of the agency as needing multiple reforms.
And Congressman John Tierney — who called for the hearing, and is pushing for it to be held in Gloucester — said he was considering filing legislation to alter the Magnuson-Stevens Act by barring the agency, which issues fines, from keeping those revenues for its own use.
Tierney, the Salem Democrat whose district includes Gloucester and all of Cape Ann, said that, when small fishing businesses are fined, the law enforcement arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration faces a temptation that "they shouldn't have."
He added that "incentives may be perverse."
Meanwhile, Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Domestic Policy Subcommittee, said he'll schedule an oversight hearing into the law enforcement problems at NOAA as spotlighted in a report by federal Department of Commerce Inspector General Todd Zinser.
Tierney said he'd like to see the oversight hearing held in Gloucester.
The call for the IG's investigation began here last year after NOAA law enforcement filed a 59-count complaint against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction and attempted to close the business for 120 days and impose a $335,500 fine.
After a six-month 2009 investigation that began in Gloucester and other Northeast posts, Zinser last month announced finding that NOAA law enforcement agents were largely unsupervised and operating autonomously, and carried out their tasks as if they were criminal law enforcement agents rather than administrative officers.
Zinser also focused on the Asset Forfeiture Fund, which was holding $8.5 million in penalties and had no apparent oversight or audit. In her response to the IG's report, NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco directed that the fund be transferred to the control of the chief counsel for NOAA.
Zinser promised a forensic audit of the money. The Times has also reported that the office of law enforcement had directed lawyers for the agency to seek specific language in criminal settlements to keep the fines within the agency rather than allow them to default into the U.S. Treasury.
Last fall, as the IG's investigation focused on the fund, an internal NOAA enforcement memo obtained by the Times advised agents that the use of the fund without supervisory approval would no longer be allowed.
In her letter to NOAA general counsel Lois Schiffer, Lubchenco also directed that "charging decisions, penalties and permit sanctions" be reviewed independently. The IG's report found that NOAA enforcement penalties leveled in the Northeast were at least 250 percent higher than those levied in other areas.
In one pending case, an Gloucester-based NOAA agent has filed an assessment fine of $10,000 per page — $270,000 — against a New Jersey fishing boat owner over missing reports.
In his statement, Tierney said the oversight hearing could be held as soon as March.
He also said that Congressman Walter Jones, D-N.C., is considering calling for a related hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee.
The regional law enforcement office of NOAA, based in Gloucester's Blackburn Industrial Park, polices fisheries from Maine through the Carolinas.
Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, or via e-mail at rgainesw@gloucestertimes.com.
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