38 



money would not be available until October 1 at the earliest. In re- 

 sponse to my call to Secretary Brown, I was told that the Depart- 

 ment was not aware that this was going on, that they were con- 

 cerned about the delay, and that they would speed this thing up. 



What is going on and when will NOAA distribute the funds 

 promised by Secretary Brown? 



Dr. Matlock. In order to distribute the funds that were made 

 available to the National Marine Fisheries Service and NOAA, 

 there is a requirement that rules be developed within the statute. 

 We are doing all we can and looking at the legal aspects of that 

 to make the time to get those rules in place as short as possible. 

 I don't know the source of the October 1 comment, but as far as 

 I know, there is no time that has been fixed. At this point there 

 has not even been a proposed rule published yet, so we are trying 

 to get it out as quickly as we can so that the comment period is 

 as short as we can make it, we get as much involvement from peo- 

 ple and get the rules finished so we can begin to distribute the 

 money. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. Nobody is talking about proposed rules, we are 

 talking about distribution of the fund that was already available. 



Dr. Matlock. In order to distribute the funds that were made 

 available under the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act, there has to 

 be a proposed and final rule completed under the Interjuris- 

 dictional Act statute. We are trying to get those rules done as 

 quickly as we can, so that those moneys can be made available to 

 people, because of the section of the act that was used, in order to 

 make the funds available. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. I did not bring with me, but I believe we pointed 

 out to the Department this morning, the exceptions that can be 

 made that are in the law itself. And I just find another month of 

 comment period unacceptable to these communities. 



Dr. Matlock. I certainly understand that, and we will do every- 

 thing in our power legally to do what we can to get the money 

 available as quickly as we can. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. Are there any other comments? 



Mr. Hamburg. No. I just want to stand with you. Madam Chair, 

 and I am in total agreement. And one thing that sort of fries me 

 is that as Congresswoman Unsoeld said, on May 27 we were told 

 these funds were available. Nobody said anything to us about the 

 necessity of preliminary rules and final rules. All we heard was 

 that we were going to have hearings in our communities, there 

 were going to be decisions made as to how the funds could best be 

 spent, and the money would be allocated. 



And what happens to us in this situation is we are put out there 

 making statements to our constituents, believing in good faith that 

 those statements are true, and then later we found out there is all 

 this bureaucratic morass that has to be gone through. 



And I really don't enjoy being put in that position. I don't think 

 my colleagues do, either. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. If the Department is bound by it, then under the 

 Vice President's Reinventing Government objectives, doggone it, 

 you ought to find the attorneys to recommend how those regula- 

 tions should be changed. 



