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Sponsor Statement for SB 329
Allow CDQ Groups to Hold Entry Permits

An Act authorizing community development quota groups to hold commercial fishing permits.

In 1992, federal legislation created the Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program to promote fisheries related economic development and growth in western Alaska. Sixty-five communities participating in the program have formed six regional organizations (CDQ groups) within a fifty-mile radius of the Bering Sea coastline.

Senate Bill 329 provides an additional tool to enhance their goal of promoting fisheries economic development by allowing CDQ groups to hold limited entry permits. Broadening the limited entry permitting process, to allow ownership by CDQ groups, gives the groups an additional opportunity to provide an economic stimulus to communities within their geographic bounds. Should this bill become law, limited entry permits shall only be held by: individuals, CDQ groups, CFAB and the state loan programs.

Today the six CDQ groups are:

• Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association (6 communities)
• Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation (17 communities)
• Central Bering Sea Fishermen's Association (1 community)
• Coastal Villages Region Fund (20 communities)
• Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (15 communities)
• Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association (6 communities)

According to the Community Development Quota Program, "since 1992, approximately 9,000 jobs have been created for western Alaska residents with wages totaling more that $60 million."

It is the sponsor's intent that SB 329 provides the groups an additional economic means to broaden the impact they have on the communities they serve by bringing additional jobs and wages to strengthen the economical well being of western Alaska.

I encourage all members of the committee to join me in supporting SB 329. Thank you.

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