House Passes Elfreth Bill to Tackle Invasive Blue Catfish in the Chesapeake Bay

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth (D-MD-03) and Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA-01), Co-Chairs of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force and leaders on the House Natural Resources Committee, secured House passage of the Mitigation Action and Waterman Support (MAWS) Actafter the bill unanimously passedthe House Natural Resources Committee in January.

The legislation introducedlast July would establish a pilot program in the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office to facilitate a market for Chesapeake Bay blue catfish in the pet and animal food industry in an effort to take millions of pounds of these harmful fish out of our waterways. NOAA will administer grants to pet and animal food manufacturers to ensure watermen are properly incentivized to catch blue catfish and establish transportation, processing, and manufacturing structures for a long-term market. Throughout this two-year pilot, NOAA will collect data on the ecological and economic impacts of this program. NOAA will then report best practices, lessons learned, and recommendations to Congress.

"With House passage of the MAWS Act, we are one step closer to creating new opportunities in a growing market for blue catfish, which pose a direct ecological and economic threat to the Chesapeake Bay. While we can all do our part and order blue catfish when we see it on a menu, this is not a problem that we alone can eat our way out of," said Congresswoman Elfreth. "That's why we need bipartisan, innovative solutions, like the MAWS Act, that strengthen our local economy and preserve the health of the Bay. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to get this legislation past the finish line. If we can prove this innovative strategy works in the Chesapeake, my hope is it can utilize similar tools in waterways across the country - like invasive carp in the Mississippi and Great Lakes."

"The MAWS Act will facilitate a new market for invasive blue catfish - protecting the biodiversity of the Chesapeake Bay," said Rep. Wittman. "I am pleased that the House has passed this legislation, and I look forward to seeing it advance to the Senate. Preserving the health of the Bay remains one of my top priorities, and I am proud to have joined Congresswoman Elfreth in leading this critical legislation."

"The Chesapeake Bay is the beating heart of Maryland, and invasive Blue Catfish threaten the very ecosystems and communities that the watershed sustains," said Congressman Hoyer."I was proud to join my friend Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth on the MAWS Act and help secure passage of this vital legislation to combat Blue Catfish and protect our beloved Bay."

Blue catfish are not only contributing to the ecological biodiversity challenge of the Bay, but also causing significant economic damage to Maryland and Virginia's seafood industries. They are now the most abundant biomass in the Chesapeake Bay. Despite being safe and nutritious for human consumption, watermen are struggling to sell enough blue catfish to combat the rapidly growing population, partially due to a rule that redirects inspection for this species to the USDA, unlike every other fish that is inspected through the FDA. The legislation was crafted and amended after over 100 meetings, where both Rep. Wittman and Rep. Elfreth's staff sat down with stakeholders, including watermen and processors across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, researchers and economists focused on invasive aquatic species, and pet food manufacturers at both a local and international scale. Rep. Elfreth's team has additionally led 4 separate presentations and discussions with the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Invasive Catfish Workgroup, including the Policy Small Group and Commercial Fishing & Processing Small Group.

Following today's passage, the bill moves to the Senate for further consideration. The full bill text is available HERE. A one-pager of the bill is available HERE.

Click HEREor the image below to view Elfreth's full remarks on the House floor.

Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth

Remarks as Delivered

House Floor

March 16th, 2026

Thank you, Madam Speaker, for recognizing me and including H.R. 4294, the MAWS Act, in today's suspension package, a piece of legislation I was so proud to work in partnership in crafting with a gentleman from Virginia.

The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the nation that is responsible for $100 billion in annual economic value, is facing a critical, albeit delicious threat: the invasive blue catfish.

These blue catfish were introduced into tidal areas of the Bay in the 1970s for recreational purposes, under the assumption that they would stay in the fresh water and not venture into the brackish water of the larger Bay.

That assumption has turned out to be catastrophically wrong. Blue catfish are now not only in every tidal area of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, but they are the most abundant biomass in many of them, and the threat is real. Blue catfish can live up to 20 years. They can weigh up to 100 pounds. They eat approximately 10% of their body weight every day and have an extremely fast metabolism.

The imbalance my colleague from Virginia just spoke about in our ecosystem, has created a situation where, because they eat so much, their meals frequently consist of staples of our seafood industry, and staples of Maryland and Virginia's culture - baby blue crabs, rock fish, even oysters - causing significant economic damage to our seafood industry at large, which is a central part of our economies in the Bay region.

Making matters worse, these blue catfish, because they are invasive, have no natural predators in the Bay to control that population growth. Because of this, they now estimate there are tens of millions of these fish throughout the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and that's just growing rapidly.

The good news, Madam Speaker, is that blue catfish are delicious and nutritious. They are high in protein and omega-3s. And according to a new report from Bay scientists, these catfish do not retain PFAS like other fish.

The market for human consumption has grown significantly across the region due to a concerted marketing campaign, processors who make bold investments, and chefs who are willing to take a risk, with blue catfish dishes popping up in restaurant menus and filets on sale at your local market. But that market has a few critical limitations that are inhibiting our ability to control this catastrophe.

First, blue catfish are the only fish inspected by the USDA. All other fish are under the jurisdiction of the FDA, and this adds significant hurdles for seafood processors and watermen who want to sell blue catfish for human consumption. I'd be remiss, Madam Speaker, if I didn't highlight that this very red tape, this bureaucracy, is a limitation placed on the industry by the Congress itself.

Second, state health regulations indicate that blue catfish fillet is safe for human consumption in fish no larger than 25 pounds. This means there are tens of millions of fish over 25 pounds, or up to 85 pounds, actually, that watermen struggle to sell because they cannot be processed for human consumption, and the market is not there. Fortunately, they are completely safe for inclusion in the pet food industry.

Third, on the other end of the spectrum, there are millions of more than one to two-pound blue catfish that are not big enough to filet and consequently aren't sold for processing for people. The smallest fish are among the most aggressive predators of the species, species that our industry relies on, stealthily eating eggs and otherwise hard-to-access habitats. We have made significant critical progress, like the USDA grant program, which provides financial support to processors and food banks, but there remains the problem that only the very narrow window of two to 25-pound fish can be sold for human consumption.

We are left without a solution to the question: what are watermen supposed to do with every other size? They can't just throw them back.

Well, we can do our part. Everybody here and everybody watching at home, including my mother, can do their part in ordering the blue catfish when you see it on a menu. Again, it's delicious and nutritious. This is not a problem that we are capable of eating our way out of.

That is why I introduced the bipartisan MAWS Act alongside House Natural Resources Committee Vice Chairman, Mr. Wittman, to invest funds to address invasive blue catfish and strengthen our local seafood economy, while also providing a new source of protein to pets nationwide.

The MAWS Act establishes this pilot program within the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office to facilitate a market for Chesapeake Bay blue catfish in the pet and animal food industry.

This program will complement the growing market for human consumption by forging new partnerships with pet and animal food manufacturers nationwide who otherwise do not have a footprint in the Chesapeake Bay. And it would establish a sustainable outlet for fish that are outside the window for human consumption by giving watermen and processors more opportunities to sell the smallest and largest blue catfish.

NOAA will enter into cooperative agreements with pet and animal food manufacturers to sell to watermen and processors, to ensure that they are properly incentivized to catch blue catfish in the Bay, and establish transportation, processing, and manufacturing structures for that long-term market need.

By having a customer base with consistent and reliable price points, watermen can feel confident that it is worth their while to catch blue catfish of all shapes and sizes, knowing there will be somebody at the end of the dock to buy it for a fair price.

Price points for this pilot program will be established in a collaborative effort between watermen, processors, manufacturers, scientists, and economists. We spent a year crafting this bill, compromising to make sure that everybody's voices were heard and everybody had a seat at the table, ensuring every corner of the industry has a seat and a voice in the decision of what the baseline market price for filet, byproduct, and whole fish will be for this program.

Additionally, in the many months of engagement on this bill with watermen, processors, and manufacturers, we learned that transportation mechanisms are a complex web of coordinated pickups, often with processors going right to the front door of the homes of watermen to pick up their daily catch.

In order to make participation in this program feasible and promote the establishment of long-term transportation processes, 15% of the total grant funding can be used by grantees to establish these new routes across the Chesapeake Bay, in partnership with established routes led by processors.

Throughout this two-year pilot program, NOAA will collect data on the ecological and economic impacts of the program. NOAA will report back to this Congress on best practices, lessons learned, and recommendations for additional species and other watersheds that may benefit from this program.

Our seafood industry across the Chesapeake Bay is the heart of our economy, but many factors far outside the control of watermen and processors have left the industry in a dire situation.

Extreme weather, deep freezes, unexpected waterway discharge, and a national affordability crisis are threatening the livelihoods of our watermen, not to mention the ever-increasing blue catfish population.

The MAWS Act, again, is the result of intensive collaboration and creativity of stakeholders across the watershed as we sought to address this ecological and economic damage of the invasive species in a way that complements, again, complements and strengthens the growing market for human consumption. This is not an either-or; this is a yes-and, all-hands-on-deck approach.

If this innovative approach is successful, it's our hope that a similar tool can be utilized to combat invasive aquatic species in other waterways across the nation. Think carp that are wreaking havoc in the Mississippi River and in the Great Lakes. Think snake heads that are invading North Carolina, Missouri, Arkansas, and more.

I'm proud to lead this effort of a one-of-a-kind legislation, in partnership with my colleague from Virginia, Representative Whittman, Representative Kiggans, as well as Representative Hoyer.

I want to thank the Chair and his staff for providing such technical assistance to this bill, and I want to thank my colleagues for supporting this bill. And I reserve the balance of my time.

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