Member Day

Welcome to this afternoon's fiscal year 2027 Member Day hearing for our subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. I want to welcome our colleagues and thank them for testifying on the priorities that are important to them. The CJS jurisdiction is broad, impacts everything from public safety within the Department of Justice to trade and weather at the Department of Commerce and space exploration under NASA. I look forward to hearing from you as the fiscal year 2027 funding cycle begins. Your comments and requests are important and they will be noted in the bill as the bill and report writing commences. At this time, I want to recognize Ms. Meng for any opening remarks she wishes to make.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I just join you in welcoming our colleagues. Mr. Van Drew, welcome to this hearing. I look forward to hearing your testimony. Thank you. I yield back.

Thank you, Ms. Meng. To all the witnesses, we will endeavor to be respectful of your time and will follow up with any questions should we have. Your official testimony will be included in the hearing record. Mr. Van Drew of New Jersey, you're now recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman. And I want to thank you, Chairman, and the ranking member for doing this and this I know it's a lot of work. It's a pleasure to once again be here to testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science. First, I want to briefly speak on my community project funding requests below, then move to a much more serious matter and a serious and unfortunately complicated matter. The two that I have as far as community project funding, one is in a town in my district called Vineland and it's a command vehicle that they use. It's a big city and they need a command vehicle for all the challenges that they have. What they use now is old, antiquated, and hasn't been great for years. The second thing is something called the Great Egg Harbor River Watershed Revitalization, which also falls under your purview and again, it's an important project and it means a lot. My first community project that I just mentioned is from the Department of Justice Byrne Justice Grants account to purchase a mobile command vehicle in the city of Vineland. The city's current vehicle is over 35 years old and has reached the end of its useless life. This vehicle is important for the city response to emergencies, including mass casualties, as well as managing large and they do have large events there as well. This capability is shared with other towns throughout the region, so it makes sense they can share the use of it to reduce costs in that region. It's broadly supported by law enforcement and emergency response organizations. The committee funded several similar projects last year and I have provided the project and reference number at the end of my testimony for your consideration. My second community project request is for the Great Egg Harbor River Watershed Revitalization from the Coastal Zone Management account. The Great Egg Harbor is one of only a few national wild and scenic rivers and I have worked closely with the New Jersey Department of Transportation for years to craft this submission. This will give the New Jersey Department of Transportation the resources to execute its shovel-ready plans. They're shovel-ready for the restoration of Tuckahoe Island. It's used by government, business, environmental, and recreation groups and I ask the committee to please consider this funding. And then finally, I must ask for the committee's help with the critical situation in Jersey, quite frankly caused by a total failure of government at all levels. This is an existential threat to the largest fisheries in the country. It's not only in New Jersey, this is around the country and we need to do something. Through the COVID-era CARES Act and the fiscal year 2021 omnibus, Congress appropriated funds to NOAA, as we remember, to provide financial assistance for struggling fisheries because of COVID. These funds were passed through regional fisheries commissions, in our case the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commission passed the money to state agencies such as the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey DEP. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection dispersed the money, millions of dollars, to fisheries across the state. They calculated the loss relative to normal revenue and paid the balance. In other words, if your business was harmfully affected by COVID and they were, in order to keep employees on and just to stay whole as we got through this, they dispersed this money and this was the purpose of the bill. Fisheries were explicitly told that they would not have to return this money except in the case of fraud, which of course they should return it and they should be disciplined for that as well. Years later, in response to a report from the state controller, New Jersey has a state comptroller, every state's different, New Jersey DEP went back to the fisheries and said they had to redo their revenue calculations to cover a broader window of time. So they changed the rules after they gave the money out to the fisheries. The fisheries already spent the money to keep employees on, to just stay whole so they could continue on, and then they wanted to change the rules afterward. The action resulted in dozens of fisheries now being declared more than whole. Now they're saying they got too much money. The consequences of this having been extremely disabling. The situation was one of the worst and I've been in government over 30 years, starting from a mayor to county to state and state senate. I've seen a lot of stuff. I've been around a while. Look at all the white hair. But I haven't seen nothing quite like this. It's demanding that they repay this money, but the ASMFC, the commission, has no money and they're not authorized to have any money to do so. Other commissions are now hesitant to ever work with the federal government again. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is inflicting brutal enforcement actions upon New Jersey fisheries for simply having followed the guidance they were given. They did nothing wrong. And I know this is complicated and I know staff will need to work its way through this and our office is willing to work with you. As of February, there were still over $3 million in clawbacks outstanding, affecting 20 different fisheries. For several fisheries, they are trying to claw back over half a million each. For others, they are trying to claw back from the family members of the now deceased that took aid during COVID. The situation truly is alarming. Congress needs to do something. My immediate concern is making New Jersey fisheries, not the government, the fisheries whole. I ask that the committee include an appropriation to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission so they may repay their debt to NOAA. I've been told that if ASMFC pays NOAA, then the collections process will stop and the fisheries will be safe. Fisheries are extremely important to New Jersey and again, this is not only in New Jersey. This action is commensurate with the seriousness of the situation. This is a bipartisan request supported by Congressman Pallone of New Jersey's 6th Congressional District. I thank you for your consideration. I know that was a lot and it's long, it's complicated, and I'm sorry for that and I know your staff will look over all of it, but it is very important. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Van Drew. We appreciate you informing the committee on this topic. Ms. Meng, any questions?

No, sir. Thank you.

With no other questions before us and no other members testifying, I want to thank everyone for attending. For those members that submitted written testimony, it will be included in the official hearing record. With that said, this concludes today's fiscal year 2027 Member Day hearing and this hearing is now adjourned.

Chair, may I say one thing? I hope both of you are...