WASHINGTON, DC– Republican leaders in the House backed down today in a dispute with Democrats regarding the need to provide federal aid to West Coast salmon fishermen and small businesses facing a severe salmon population shortage.

Representative George Miller (D-CA) and other West Coast Democrats led by Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA) vowed earlier today to block regular order in the House of Representatives because the House would not allow debate or a vote an amendment proposed by Thompson to provide $81 million in immediate disaster relief to the salmon fishermen and women of California and Oregon and the businesses and communities that depend on them.

Despite the near-total closure of the 2006 salmon season and the destruction of the Klamath fishery, the Bush Administration has refused to declare a federal disaster in this industry. Thompson proposed aiding the affected businesses and communities but House Republican leaders refused to consider his amendment.

After several hours of delay this morning, Republican leaders allowed a modified version of Thompson’s amendment to be considered and it was unanimously approved by the House. While the modified amendment would provide $2 million in aid to the fishermen and local communities, Thompson, Miller and others said that approval of the amendment will allow them the opportunity to fight for more aid later this year when the House bill that the amendment was attached to is reconciled with a Senate version of the bill.

“For no good reason, President Bush and his allies in Congress have abandoned salmon fishermen, small businesses and local communities along the West Coast,” said Miller. “Democrats in the House refused to abandon these communities and today we have won an important victory for them. We will continue to press this concern in the Congress until we have done everything that we should be doing as a result of the Administration’s fisheries mismanagement.”

Miller noted that the rights of the minority in Congress have been severely limited under GOP rule. Frequently, Democrats are not allowed to offer amendments that are relevant to the bill under consideration at that time. But there are still tools lawmakers can use to block or delay regular order to make the point that they deserve to have their amendments considered. Because the lawmakers promised today to use those tools to pressure the Republican leadership to allow the Thompson amendment to be considered, the leadership finally backed down and allowed the amendment to be considered so that they could continue with regular order for the rest of the day.

Background on 2006 Salmon Fisheries Crisis

Several Democratic members co-authored legislation (H.R.5213) this year to address both the short- and long-term problems plaguing the Klamath fishery. Miller, Thompson, and others have also repeatedly asked the Department of Commerce to declare a disaster so that Congress can provide immediate assistance to the affected fishermen and women and communities. The Department has refused to do so and says it may be impossible to make such a declaration until February 2007.

The Klamath River runs from Oregon through Northern California, and has been badly mismanaged by the Bush administration for political gain. In 2002, on behalf of the farm industry, the Bush Administration directed water to be diverted from the river, which resulted in a massive fish kill. This year's drastically reduced number of returning salmon is directly attributable to the 2002 fish kill and a parasitic infection resulting from poor federal management of the river.

Here’s how the LA Times wrote about the Administration’s actions.

“All administrations are political, of course. But never before has the White House inserted electoral priorities into Cabinet agencies with such regularity and deliberation. Before the 2002 midterm elections, for instance, Rove or Mehlman visited with the managers of many federal agencies to share polling information and discuss how policy decisions might affect key races.

“In 2002, Rove told Interior Department officials of the importance of helping farmers in Oregon whose political support was crucial to Gordon Smith, a vulnerable Republican senator. Within months, perhaps because of Rove's exhortations, the agency did just that, supporting the diversion of water from the environmentally important Klamath River for the sake of irrigating farmland. Thousands of salmon eventually died in the newly shallow waters. But the senator secured his reelection.”

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