The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2013 spending plan for NOAA on Thursday that includes an amendment to close the Northeast regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Gloucester and move the bulk of fisheries management, administration and law enforcement to Silver Spring, Md.
Federal lawmakers from Massachusetts vowed a fight to keep open the NOAA’s NMFS office in Gloucester, which was privately developed and built to specs provided by the General Services Administration. The edifice, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s newest and spiffiest regional headquarters among eight, sits in Blackburn Industrial Park, is assessed at nearly $13 million, and brings the city $169,185 a year in taxes.
The amendment was sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Science, Justice and Related Agencies. The Maryland Democrat said the region’s federal waters are vast, extending from Maine to North Carolina and “we in the Bay (Chesapeake Bay) don’t get calls back … This office provides problems at many levels.”
“Better centrally locating the facility at NMFS headquarters would allow for greater coordination with senior management at NOAA and the Department (of Commerce), while saving an estimated $1.8 million on rent and a yet unspecified amount on travel costs,” the Mikulski subcommittee said in its markup. The budget flew through the full committee.
Whether the amendment survives Senate floor action later this year is uncertain; so are the chances of the Mikulski amendment in the House, where if faces a Republican majority. The federal budget year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, so federal fiscal 2013 begins this fall.
Opposition to the shutdown of the regional office in Blackburn Industrial Park, which according to the subcommittee markup of the NOAA budget, “may leave a small local presence in the area,” was voiced immediately by both U.S. senators from Massachusetts, by Rep. John Tierney, whose district includes Cape Ann, and former Mayor John Bell.
“It would be insane” to abandon Gloucester for the D.C., area, said Bell, who dedicated much effort in his third term as mayor to convincing NOAA to finance construction of the $14 million regional headquarters.
“As many times as we disagree with them,” said Bell, “it is essential to have close access to the agency. There is not a fisherman who hasn’t traveled to Blackburn to untangle things.
“Having NOAA handy is vital to have this fishery work in the long term. Efficiency could be very costly,” Bell added.
Mayor Carolyn Kirk could not be reached for comment Thursday.
“I strongly oppose any effort to close the NMFS regional office in Gloucester and I trust Sens. (John) Kerry and (Scott) Brown will be fighting against this misguided effort and making clear the many reasons why this office should remain open,” Tierney said. “Last year, I voiced my strong objection to Senate language requiring a full analysis on relocating the Northeast regional office closer to NOAA’s headquarters. This analysis has not even been shared with Congress yet, but this hasn’t stopped Senate appropriators from pressing ahead with trying to close the regional office.”
NOAA’s failure for multiple years to produce the analysis Mikulski had requested is said to have convinced her to press the point with her amendment.
“I understand the tensions are still there, but the issue here is Massachusetts jobs and direct access for our fishermen to the regulators whose actions affect their lives,” said Kerry. “At a time when we need more face-to-face communication to improve trust and basic efficiency between federal regulators and our local industry, moving personnel away only creates another bureaucratic hurdle we simply can’t afford. I plan to ask the Appropriations Committee to fix this, and I hope they will accommodate my request.”
“I am disappointed the subcommittee would recommend closing the Northeast regional office at such a critical time for New England fisheries,” said Brown. “NOAA is already too disconnected from our fishing communities. Moving their New England staff to headquarters in Washington can only make the situation worse.”
© 2012 the Gloucester Daily Times (Gloucester, Mass.)
Distributed by MCT Information Services
Close it, move it, anything to change the people in charge.
Amen.
I lived in Maryland for a long time and there is one overwhelming piece of truth that is forever. Anytime Mikulski starts moving Federal Agencies back to the Metro DC / BALTIMORE area you can be dammed sure she isin’t doing it for efficiency. Mikuski has been a Baltimore Democrat for years. And Baltimore Democrat’s are worse that Tea Party Republican’s ! This move is nothing more than an attempt to increase the Federal voting workforce population in Maryland, that Mikulski depends on, by Census, to keep her Senate seat. As much as I respect the political process this move by Barbara The Battleaxe is nothing more than using the Civil Service as a means of political gerrymandering her State and District. And since NOAA already has an office, with the NMFS, in Baltimore, someone please show me where the need is to centralize for efficiency ? This is one example of jusy why the Gov’t needs to be so big, so it can 1 on 1 be responsive to both the business community (anyone want to tell me the fishing isin’t business ?) and to the community’s that it answers to.
Mikulski’s move is nothing less than her outright attempt to build her own personal politically-owed feudal kingdom, with the Civil Service now depending on her good will to keep them working. You can bet the fishing boat that she’s already got at least 2 outside contractor’s more than ready to step in and replace the NOAA and NMFS folk’s if they raise to much stink over this. Barbara’s out for Barbara. Anything else is moosepoop fermenting on Rt 1 in mid-July !
You said it. If she were a Republican doing this, the Left would be way up in arms. It’s another big chunk of graft in the tradition of Robert Byrd.
“The federal budget year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, so federal fiscal 2013 begins this fall.”
Does it really matter what this article is about since the Senate has NOT passed a budget in three years!
She don’t know port from starboard…or bow from stern….but knows how to get votes! I say move it to Bar Harbor!
That seems awfully far to the southern end of the northeast.
Isn’t the bulk of the Northeast maritime traffic around NYC & Boston? Why isn’t the office there?
They just want get “the fold” closer to the heart of things “Washington D.C. A lot of jobs to fill there, don’t ya know.
When I got a snotty dismissal from a NOAA bureaucrat from the regional office who refused to reveal his ‘private’ communication with Dam owners with them over removing the dams under a Freedom of Information request; I knew this was an agency that has gotten way too powerful and out of control.
Having Mikulski(D) lead the way on this is a huge surprise; but I’ll take her help any day. I’m not sure the federal workforce needs any more enlarging; so I don’t buy that rationale. Clearly NOAA has pissed off plenty of constituents of political leaders to deserve getting cut down a few notches. What is NOAA doing regulating riverways and urging construction of fish ways? Doesn’t the Army Corps, Dept of Energy, Emergency Management agency, State & Federal DEP, Fish & wildlife have jurisdiction over this area?