WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Lisa Murkowski on Friday continued her campaign on Capitol Hill to secure federal disaster relief funds for Alaskan communities damaged by last summer’s low salmon runs, building on the momentum she gained in forming a large and influential bipartisan Senate coalition of sixteen co-sponsors of an amendment that was adopted to the Senate FY2014 budget resolution.

Senators from Alaska to New England to the Gulf of Mexico joined Murkowski on a letter to the Chairwoman and Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, urging them to allocate relief funds for Alaska Chinook, Mississippi Oysters and Blue Crabs, Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fisheries and Superstorm Sandy-impacted fisheries – and saying the “severity of the situation” is rising as the delay continues

Earlier this year, Senator Murkowski compared the urgency of the situation for impacted regions to those of farmlands who suffer dry seasons damaging their crops – calling fishery failures “droughts in our rivers and streams” – and saying these areas should receive aid as speedily as farms in the heartland.

In a letter, that can be read here, from Senator Murkowski and her colleagues, they write:

Fishing is an integral part of our states’ economies and cultures. The substantial delay in providing disaster relief is deepening the severity of the situation. We urge you to support the inclusion of these funds in the FY14 CJS Appropriations bill to provide the relief these communities need.