Cormorant Relief Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. EZELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2293, the Cormorant Relief Act of 2025, which reinstates the Aquaculture Depredation Order for double-crested cormorants. The double-crested cormorant is a nuisance, plain and simple.

A single cormorant can eat up to 1\1/2\ pounds of fish every day. Even the Fish and Wildlife Service has classified them as opportunist and generalist feeders that prey on a wide range of species.

Yet, farmers are still forced to jump through needless hoops to prevent these birds from wiping out their stock. The Aquaculture Depredation Order is nothing new. It is the same commonsense tool that was easily reinstated in 2003, 2009, and 2014.

Aquaculture farmers have been struggling for years with the importation of nondomestic catfish flooding the market. Every year, American catfish farmer communities lose up to $64 million in stock to the cormorants alone.

For far too long, catfish farmers in Mississippi and across the Southeast have been weighed down by burdensome permits and processes created by people too far removed from the realities of everyday, working-class Americans.

It is past time we restore a commonsense approach to this and ensure that our farmers can finally defend their ponds without any Federal red tape in the way.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Westerman, Leader Scalise, the Gulf Coast officials, and numerous Mississippians who have worked hard to bring this bill to the floor. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

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