NOAA Fisheries officials briefed the Pacific Fishery Management Council on a recently issued presidential executive order titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness” and related White House directives that instruct the regional fishery management councils and federal agencies to identify and prioritize actions to boost U.S. seafood production and reduce regulatory burdens.

Sam Rausch, representing NOAA leadership, described the EO’s major elements: councils are asked to propose prioritized actions (with a work plan and schedule) to reduce burdens, stabilize markets, improve access, enhance profitability and prevent closures; NOAA and the administration must develop an American seafood trade strategy that addresses unfair foreign trade practices including illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and forced labor; and the administration directed a review of several related policies including seafood import monitoring and marine monument designations.

Rausch and other agency staff also explained that the administration is pursuing an aggressive deregulatory accounting framework that will require agencies to identify deregulatory actions that offset regulatory costs. Under the current guidance, agencies will be asked to identify multiple deregulatory actions for each new regulatory action and to take steps that produce net savings. Separately, the White House announced a “gold‑standard science” executive order with requirements on scientific transparency, reproducibility and uncertainty analysis; NOAA staff told the council that those principles are generally consistent with the council’s open stock assessment and peer review processes.

NOAA asked each council to identify candidate actions at the June meeting and provide more detailed prioritized lists and timelines in September. Executive director Merrick Burden described a two‑meeting approach: (1) identify actions and prioritization criteria at this meeting; (2) refine and finalize the prioritized list and schedule in September for transmittal to the agency for the October 14 EO deadline. Council staff noted existing priorities in the council’s Year‑at‑a‑Glance and the groundfish and CPS priority lists and recommended using EO criteria (stabilize markets, improve access, enhance profitability, prevent closures) as a starting filter.

NOAA said it will also solicit public suggestions through a Federal Register notice and a series of public webinars, and that many proposals may require interagency or trade work outside NMFS’s direct purview. Council members asked how to balance statutory Magnuson‑Stevens Act obligations and the administration’s deregulatory expectations and requested clearer guidance on prioritization criteria; NOAA replied that statutory obligations remain in force and advised the councils to develop criteria aligned with the EO’s goals but consistent with Magnuson requirements.