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Commerce and the Secretary of the Interior (Secretaries) as being 

 out of compliance with a Plan. If the Secretary of Commerce 

 (Secretary) , in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, 

 agrees that a state is out of compliance with a Plan, the 

 Secretary would declare a moratorium on fishing for the species 

 covered by the Plan in the coastal waters of that state. The 

 moratorium would be lifted upon notice from the ASMFC that the 

 state has taken appropriate remedial action. 



Other provisions of the draft bill include Federal support 

 for state coastal fisheries programs, implementation of 

 regulations in the exclusive economic zone by the Secretary in 

 the absence of a fishery management plan under the Magnuson 

 Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson Act) , and 

 financial assistance by the Secretaries to ASMFC and the states 

 to carry out the provisions of the draft bill. 



The Department strongly supports the basic concept of the 

 Subcommittee's draft bill to use the ASMFC as the centerpiece for 

 a renewed and strengthened effort to conserve and manage the 

 coastal migratory fishery resources along the Atlantic seaboard. 

 This approach builds upon successful efforts under the Atlantic 

 Striped Bass Conservation Act (ASBCA) , which has been largely 

 responsible for the ongoing recovery of that species. The 

 Department supported reauthorization of the ASBCA each time it 

 was considered for reauthorization. We anticipate that passage 



