A pair of GOP senators is pushing legislation to delay looming Environmental Protection Agency regulations requiring certain commercial fisherman to carry special permits to hose down their decks.
Small fishing vessels are exempt from needing those special permits under the EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Program now, but only through Dec. 18.
“We need to provide all shippers and other vessel owners engaged in interstate commerce with greater certainty that an overreaching and increasingly unaccountable EPA won’t crush their businesses with burdensome regulations,” Rubio said in a statement Wednesday.
“While I remain committed to passing broader legislation that addresses more of the problems the EPA is unnecessarily causing commercial vessel owners, this Congress should at least pass this temporary relief measure until we can pass a permanent solution next year.”
Members of the seafood industry are urging Congress to move quickly, with only four weeks until the exemption expires.
