Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 436.
This bill creates a two-year test program where the federal government pays companies that make pet food, animal feed, or fish feed to buy invasive blue catfish caught by local fishermen in the Chesapeake Bay area. The goal is to reduce the population of this harmful non-native fish by creating a financial reason for people to catch more of them. If this passes, watermen (commercial fishermen) in the Chesapeake Bay region get a new buyer for blue catfish, and the government tracks whether this actually reduces the invasive fish population.
Commercial fishermen in the Chesapeake Bay area would get a new, government-backed buyer for invasive blue catfish they catch, putting money in their pockets while tackling an environmental problem. The program turns an ecological threat into an economic opportunity by channeling these fish into pet food and animal feed.