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Two Texas congressmen have joined a bipartisan effort to deter international financial institutions from financing foreign shrimpers with U.S. taxpayer money.
U.S. Rep Vicente Gonzalez, D-Brownsville, joined Republican Reps. Troy Nehls, of Sugar Land, Clay Higgins and Garret Graves, of Louisiana, Mike Ezell, of Mississippi, Barry Moore, of Alabama, and Nancy Mace, of South Carolina, in introducing H.R. 7932, the Save our Shrimpers Act of 2024.
“Foreign shrimp imports continue to wreak havoc on South Texas’s shrimping industry,” Gonzalez said. “Our domestic seafood markets are flooded with foreign farm-raised shrimp, which are subsidized by our federal dollars. We must do everything in our power to help the thousands of struggling shrimpers in our region and throughout the gulf.”
Nehls said global excess capacity and production of farm-raised shrimp and imports are overwhelming the U.S. market and driving shrimp prices to levels that many shrimpers cannot cover the cost of a single shrimp fishing trip.
“Shrimpers in the 22nd Congressional District of Texas, along the Gulf Coast, and Atlantic Coast are faced with similar difficult decisions of whether to catch shrimp, tie up the trawlers for the season, or even be forced to sell their trawlers,” Nehls said.
