§6453 Membership

Summary

Names who can vote on the Task Force. The co-chairs who vote are the Commerce official in charge of oceans and atmosphere and the head of the Interior Department. The President, after talking with that Commerce official, can add other federal agency representatives who vote. Each covered State must have its Governor or someone the Governor chooses as a voting member. Lists several nonvoting members. These include one member each from the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico fishery councils chosen by Florida’s Governor. One Western Pacific council member is chosen jointly by the Governors of Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands from December 23, 2022, through December 31, 2022, and then those Governors take turns picking the member each year after that. One Caribbean council member is chosen jointly by the Governors of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for that same short period, then those two Governors alternate each year. The Presidents of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau each appoint one nonvoting member.