WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, Congresswoman Elaine Luria called on the House Natural Resources Committee to hold a hearing to improve federal aid provided to fishery participants to ensure adequate relief is provided to Virginia’s aquaculture and shellfish industry.
“In Coastal Virginia, hardworking watermen, small businesses, restaurants, and wholesale distributors in the aquaculture and shellfish industries face unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Congresswoman Elaine Luria. “We can and must do more to support economic recovery, and I urge the House Natural Resources Committee to pursue the Congressional oversight necessary to ensure fair and adequate distribution of economic relief to aquaculture and seafood businesses.”
As the representative for much of Virginia’s coastline, Congresswoman Luria highlights that shellfish growers make up more than 80% of Virginia’s aquaculture sector and faced unique barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic because most of their products are sold in restaurants rather than grocery stores. The CARES Act provided $300 million total in fisheries disaster assistance, however, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) allocated just $4.5 million for Virginia. In her letter, Congresswoman Luria urges Chair Jared Huffman of the Water, Oceans, and Wildlife Subcommittee to include a witness from Virginia to speak to why this allocation fell far short of the relief needed to keep many in the aquaculture and shellfish industry solvent.
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Elaine Luria knows my boat is VIRTUALLY stuck on the clam flats with no harvest in it and I am just getting some clams for myself and friends to eat. Her idea of helping all of us is to cruise by VIRTUALLY in the channel while holding on to a heated rail and flipping me some new socks attached to a fishing line to supply some relief. Gee, thanks. I was surprised she didn’t yell “would you like to eat some cake too?” Thank God she also had the foresight to send out a press release to pat herself on the back at the same time. Whatever you do Elaine, don’t reopen the restaurants safely while practicing social distancing like is done in the stores of your big donors. That would make sense, let us support ourselves, and go about having a life again. is it time to fix stupid yet ?
Scotiagirl would like to buy Luria a plane ticket to Florida where she would also buy Luria and Desantis lunch in any one of Florida’s many OPEN restaurants. Maybe they would order some fresh oysters and clams shipped in from Virginia, or maybe some lobster fresh from the waters of Nova Scotia? Hopefully, between bites, Luria would solicit some advice from Desantis as to how he has managed to keep restaurants and businesses open in Florida while, at the same time keeping infections and death numbers low.
But wsit…Will Scotiagirl be able to arrange this luncheon before Biden closes Florida’s borders? Gosh…well, maybe they could have a Zoom call?
Maybe Luria will point Scotiagirl to https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109004/coronavirus-covid19-cases-rate-us-americans-by-state/ where she actually might be enlightened. Then maybe Scotiagirl will understand she stands a greater chance of staying virus free in VA. or does Scotiagirl somehow knows that when she comes down with the virus she will not have any complications ? If she knows she won’t then by all means please go to Florida.
Scotiagirl plans to stay put (until she can return to Nova Scotia where the rates are much lower than either Florida or Virginia) but, if you go back to her post, she hopes Luria would consult with Desantis to learn how it IS possible to operate a state WITHOUT closing down restaurants and small businesses. Or, could this just be another effort on the part of Biden and his Democrat cronies to take down a Republican governor by restricting travel to his state…let us not forget that Biden’s “good friend”, Como–who is losing $$$$$$ because people are leaving New York in droves to go to Florida, recently visited him in the WH. What do you suppose they were planning?
The more stats I see on this covid19 situation the less I believe them. I really don’t know what to think any more. There are so many federal income influenced reasons for counties, states and hospitals to report that someone has tested positive that the stats are seriously influenced by money. Yes figures lie and liars figure. Not enough checks and balances are in place and not enough corrections are reported. It’s more profitable to fail to make corrections. Too many are screaming FIRE in this theater and making bank off it. With so many known false positive covid19 test results that we have confirmed, and reported on all fronts, if someone tests positive for covid19 but is asymptomatic, do they really have covid19 ? Could they spread it ? How much has that situation been looked in to ? How properly is it being reported ? Should the stats have a category of “positive but asymptomatic?”