Bill > S3785

This bill, the Working Waterfronts Act of 2024, aims to support rural coastal and maritime economic development through several key provisions: 1. It establishes a credit for maintaining and enhancing hydroelectric facilities, including adding or improving fish passage and promoting downstream sediment transport. 2. It creates a pilot program to facilitate the transition of U.S. commercial fishing vessels to alternative fuels, including through loans for new vessel construction or retrofitting. 3. It expands the eligibility of USDA farm loans and grants to cover commercial fishing and fish processing businesses. 4. It enhances programs to support shellfish mariculture and expand access to harmful algal bloom toxin testing. 5. It increases funding and allocation requirements for the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act, which supports fisheries research and development. 6. It establishes a grant program to support rural coastal communities in building new or rehabilitating existing seafood processing and cold storage infrastructure. 7. It creates a working waterfront access protection grant program to support projects that preserve land used for commercial fishing, mariculture, for-hire recreational fishing, and boatbuilding. 8. It authorizes a new maritime workforce grant program to support maritime workforce development and training.

Budget and Finance

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/3785/all-info