GAO Study Finds Fishery Disaster Assistance Process is Changing; Challenges Remain
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What GAO found
The Department of Commerce's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is responsible for administering the fishery resource disaster program. The process to provide assistance and disburse funds involves several phases.
Since January 2014, NMFS received 111 fishery disaster requests. For 56 of the most recently approved requests, NMFS took between 1.3 years and 4.8 years to disburse $642 million. Changes made by 2022 legislation added timelines to the steps; if followed and funding is available, the process should take a little over a year...
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