[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16503-16504]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    AQUACULTURE DISASTER ASSISTANCE

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak on an 
issue that is of great importance to my home State of Louisiana: 
Federal disaster assistance. As you know, along the gulf coast, we keep 
an eye trained on the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season. This is 
following the devastating one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita 
of 2005 as well as Hurricanes Gustav and Ike last year. Our communities 
and businesses are still recovering from these disasters--some from a 
disaster that devastated the gulf coast almost 5 years ago. We are now 
also dealing with the economic and environmental damage from the 
Deepwater Horizon disaster which occurred this April. For this reason, 
as chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 
ensuring effective Federal disaster coordination is one of my top 
priorities. While the gulf coast is prone to hurricanes, other parts of 
the country are no strangers to disaster. For example, the Midwest has 
tornadoes, California experiences earthquakes and wildfires, and the 
Northeast sees crippling snowstorms. So no part of our country is 
spared from disasters--disasters which can and will strike at any 
moment. With this in mind, we must ensure that the Federal Government 
is better prepared and has the tools necessary to respond quickly, 
effectively following a disaster.
  In order to help ongoing recovery efforts in the gulf coast, and to 
give the

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U.S. Small Business Administration, SBA, more tools to respond after a 
future disaster, I am proud that the House of Representatives passed 
H.R. 5297, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. I have spoken at length 
on the Senate floor about the huge impact this legislation will have 
for small business owners. Today I also note that this legislation 
includes an important provision improving SBA disaster assistance. This 
provision builds off of SBA disaster reforms enacted in 2008 and 
ensures that small businesses in the aquaculture sector will not be 
left without disaster assistance following future disasters. In 
particular, the provision is section 1501 of H.R. 5297. I note that 
this provision is similar to section 205 of legislation I introduced 
last year, the Small Business Administration Disaster Recovery and 
Reform Act of 2009. This section amends the Small Business Act to make 
aquaculture businesses eligible for SBA economic injury disaster loans.
  Currently, the SBA determines that aquaculture includes any industry 
where an individual farms aquatic organisms, farming means intervention 
in the rearing process to enhance production--regular stocking, 
feeding, protection from predators. These include farmers of: algae, 
alligators, frogs, turtles, seaweed, clams, crawfish, pearls, fish 
farms/hatcheries, mussels, and oysters. Under current provisions of the 
Small Business Act, SBA is prohibited from providing assistance to 
these industries as it was wrongly assumed that they would be covered 
by other Federal agencies. This is because, when Congress repealed SBA 
disaster assistance for agricultural businesses in the 1980s, they 
mistakenly assumed that all of these businesses, including aquaculture 
businesses, would be helped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
USDA.
  For example, oystermen who seed private grounds which they own or 
rent are engaged in aquaculture and are currently ineligible. Public 
ground oystermen, however, who do not have exclusive use of any area, 
do not farm and are eligible for SBA economic injury disaster loans. In 
Louisiana, our aquaculture businesses in the southern part of the State 
were hit hard by both Hurricane Katrina and Rita. These businesses, 
many crawfish farmers or those with fish farms, were ineligible for 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, disaster assistance, but were 
also ineligible for SBA disaster loans. We also learned that similar 
problems followed Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008. A more recent 
example of the huge problem this causes is that the SBA is currently 
offering $2 million economic injury disaster loans, EIDLs, to 
businesses impacted by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Since the Small 
Business Act currently prohibits aquaculture businesses from receiving 
EIDLs, they were ineligible. However, no other Federal agency, 
including USDA was providing assistance for this disaster. So small 
businesses impacted by a disaster were told. We cannot help you, even 
though no other Federal agency was there to fill in the gap.
  In closing, I believe that the commonsense fix sent to the President 
today will give these businesses they help they need to recover from 
future disasters. Businesses involved in the farming of the following 
stand to benefit greatly from this new legislation: algae, alligators, 
frogs, turtles, seaweed, clams, crawfish, pearls, fish farms/
hatcheries, mussels, and oysters.
  I thank the chair and ask that my entire statement and a copy of this 
particular provision appear in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

     SEC. 1501. AQUACULTURE BUSINESS DISASTER ASSISTANCE.

       Section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632), as 
     amended by section 1343, is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:
       ``(z) Aquaculture Business Disaster Assistance.--Subject to 
     section 18(a) and notwithstanding section 18(b)(1), the 
     Administrator may provide disaster assistance under section 
     7(b)(2) to aquaculture enterprises that are small 
     businesses.''.

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