To amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to reform procedures for the payment of funds from the asset forfeiture fund, and for other purposes.
Asset Forfeiture Fund Reform and Distribution Act of 2011 - Amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to require the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) or the Secretary of the Treasury, after September 30, 2011, to use each of the sums received as fines, penalties, and forfeitures of property for violations of any provisions of such Act, or of any other fishery resource law enforced by the Secretary, to make a payment to: (1) the state in which the violation occurred, (2) the state in which the vessel involved in the violation is homeported if the violation did not occur in a state, or (3) the state most directly affected by a violation neither occurring in a state nor involving a vessel. (Current law authorizes using such sums for certain civil and criminal enforcement costs.)
Directs states to use such amounts for specified research and monitoring activities.
Sets forth transitional rules authorizing the Secretary to use such amounts received before October 1, 2011, to reimburse appropriate legal fees and costs, up to $200,000 per person, to specified persons the Secretary directed to receive a remittance of at least a portion of a fisheries enforcement penalty.
Prohibits the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from assigning specified rulemaking or adjudication proceedings to an individual who has served as an NOAA administrative law judge for at least a five-year period if such proceeding pertains to the same fishery management region to which the majority of such proceedings that the individual presided over within the period pertained.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Committee Hearings Held.
checking server…
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line