Alaska's fishermen got left out of an $11 billion farm rescue

The administration's new disaster package would send $10 billion to crop producers and another $1.1 billion to Florida growers hit by a winter freeze. It has nothing in it for Alaska's fishermen, who have spent years absorbing collapsed prices, tariff damage, and federally declared fishery disasters.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski pressed Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on that Tuesday, asking whether any fisherman would be eligible. Rollins offered language rather than money. "It's time for USDA to recognize our fishermen as part of our farmers of the sea," she said, noting the department now has an office focused on them.

The obstacle is structural. Fishery disasters run through NOAA under different law than crop disasters, and this package was built on USDA's crop authority — which is how Alaska keeps falling into the gap between two agencies. Fishermen do get federal disaster money that way; NOAA allocated $123.6 million this year. Additional Alaska requests are still pending.

There is precedent for bridging the two. USDA has extended tariff relief to Alaska seafood harvesters before. And the package may grow: Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman said after Tuesday's testimony that "we might need to look at bumping that up a little bit."