The United States House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries is a defunct committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries was created on December 21, 1887, replacing the Select Committee on American Shipbuilding and Shipowning Interests. The House Rules defined its jurisdiction as those matters concerning the United States Merchant Marine. This included all matters relating to transportation by water, the United States Coast Guard, life-saving service, lighthouses, lightships, ocean derelicts, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Panama Canal, and fisheries. Legislation referred to the committee also included matters involving seamen (their assignments, wages, treatment, and health) and officers (their titles, conduct, and licensing); the naming, measuring, licensing, and registering of vessels; navigation and related laws; pleasure yachts; collisions at sea, as well as international arrangements to prevent them; coasting districts; maritime schools; and, taxes, fines, and penalties on vessels. The committee has also regulated shipping in the Philippines and Hawaii. As did most committees of the House, the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee created subcommittees to handle portions of its jurisdiction.
In 1919 the committee was given jurisdiction over wireless telegraphy and in 1932 its name was changed to the Committee on Merchant Marine, Radio, and Fisheries. After a dispute with the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, the jurisdiction over radio services was transferred to that committee in 1935 and the term "radio" was dropped from the name of the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee.
During his tenure in office, Congressman Mario Biaggi was Chairman of the US House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Navigation.
In 1995, most duties of the committee were transferred to the Committee on Resources and subsequently abolished.
Chairmen Chair Party State Start of Service End of Service Poindexter Dunn Democratic Arkansas 1887 1889 John M. Farquhar Republican New York 1889 1891 Samuel Fowler Democratic New Jersey 1891 1893 George W. Fithian Democratic Illinois 1893 1895 Sereno E. Payne Republican New York 1895 1899 Charles H. Grosvenor Republican Ohio 1899 1907 William S. Greene Republican Massachusetts 1907 1911 Joshua W. Alexander Democratic Missouri 1911 1919 William S. Greene Republican Massachusetts 1919 1924 Frank D. Scott Republican Michigan 1925 1927 Wallace H. White Jr. Republican Maine 1927 1931 Ewin L. Davis Democratic Tennessee 1931 1933 S. Otis Bland Democratic Virginia 1933 1947 Frederick Van Ness Bradley Republican Michigan Alvin F. Weichel Republican Ohio 1947 1949 S. Otis Bland Democratic Virginia 1949 1950 Edward J. Hart Democratic New Jersey 1950 1953 Alvin F. Weichel Republican Ohio 1953 1955 Herbert Covington Bonner Democratic North Carolina 1955 1965 Edward Garmatz Democratic Maryland 1965 1973 Leonor Sullivan Democratic Missouri 1973 1977 John M. Murphy Democratic New York 1977 1980 Thomas W. L. Ashley Democratic Ohio 1980 1981 Walter B. Jones Sr. Democratic North Carolina 1981 1992 Gerry Studds Democratic Massachusetts 1992 1995
References
Records of the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries (1887– 1986), Records of the Judiciary Committee and Related Committees, Guide to the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789–1989 (Record Group 233), National Archives and Records Administration