Van Drew tells Appropriations subcommittee COVID-era fisheries clawbacks threaten New Jersey fisheries, urges funding to stop collections

Mister Van Drew of New Jersey told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science that changes by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to how relief payments were calculated have resulted in repayment demands that are placing fisheries at risk.

Van Drew described funds Congress appropriated during the COVID era — via the CARES Act and the fiscal 2021 omnibus — that were distributed to fisheries through NOAA and regional bodies. He said those funds were passed to states through regional fisheries commissions; in New Jersey’s case, payments were routed through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and then to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which later asked fisheries to recalculate revenue over a broader window and demanded repayments. "So they changed the rules after they gave the money out to the fisheries," Van Drew said.

He told the committee that fisheries had spent the money to keep employees and businesses solvent and that, as of February, there remained "over $3,000,000 in clawbacks outstanding affecting 20 different fisheries," with several fisheries facing clawbacks of more than half a million dollars. He also said some collection efforts reached estates of deceased recipients who had received aid during COVID.

Van Drew urged the subcommittee to include an appropriation to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission so the commission could repay NOAA and end the collections process, and said the request has bipartisan backing from other members of New Jersey’s delegation. The chair accepted his testimony and adjourned the member-day hearing; the committee did not take further action during this session.