Nearly six months after it was introduced, the Save Our Shrimpers Act remains stalled in the House Committee on Financial Services, despite growing frustration from Gulf Coast lawmakers and domestic shrimpers who say foreign competition — subsidized in part by U.S. tax dollars— is driving their industry to the brink.
The bill, introduced in March by U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, and backed by 17 bipartisan co-sponsors from shrimp-producing states like Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, would prohibit federal funds from being used by international financial institutions to support foreign shrimp farms or processing facilities.
“American shrimpers, including those in my district, are struggling to stay afloat due to an excess of foreign shrimp flooding our markets,” said Nehls. “Worse, American tax dollars are being used to finance foreign shrimp farms, which are driving our own shrimpers out of business.”
The legislation is a response to decades of complaints from the domestic shrimp industry, which has watched imported farmed shrimp from countries like India, Indonesia, and Vietnam overtake U.S. markets.
A 2023 report from the Southern Shrimp Alliance found that the U.S. Treasury Department’s delegation to the World Bank supported 89% of shrimp-related aquaculture projects it reviewed — despite federal law instructing opposition to funding commodities in global surplus that harm domestic industries.
