{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=f1b86d54-308d-4b98-a9bd-8e05ee1f263a", "COCHRAN OFFERS AMENDMENT TO PROTECT U.S. SHRIMP JOBS", "2014-07-24", "2014", "2014-07", "Republican", "House", "MS", "Thad Cochran", "C000567", "www.cochran.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today offered an amendment to help protect American shrimping jobs that are increasingly imperiled by imports supported by unfair government subsidies.\r\nCochran offered his amendment to the Bring Jobs Home Act (S.2569), which is pending before the Senate.\u00a0 The Cochran proposal would provide 50 cents per pound tax credits for domestic wild-caught shrimp harvesters and processors in the United States through December 2019.\r\n\u201cShrimping jobs in Mississippi and around the country are under continual threat from foreign competitors whose governments prop them up with unfair subsidies.\u00a0 As a result, jobs are being lost and an American industry is imperiled,\u201d Cochran said.\u00a0 \u201cThe tax credits I propose would serve as a counterbalance to the harmful impact of those illegal subsidies.\u201d\r\nThe U.S. Department of Commerce has determined that seven nations (China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) currently support their shrimpers with illegal subsidies valued at more than $250 million annually.\u00a0 The Cochran amendment is intended to level the playing field for U.S. harvesters and producers, consistent with World Trade Organization requirements.\r\nBased on current warm shrimp harvests and production, the five-year tax credit would cost an estimated $240 million a year, which Cochran would offset by eliminating a loophole in the U.S. Tax Code that permits illegal immigrants to claim the Additional Child Tax Credit.\u00a0 In 2010, the U.S. Treasury Department estimated that $4.2 billion in Child Tax Credits has been paid to illegal immigrants. Even with the $1.2 billion cost of the Cochran credit, closing the Additional Child Care Tax Credit would save taxpayers billions of dollars.\r\nCochran, who last week criticized U.S. enforcement of trade duties imposed on countries found to be dumping shrimp, fish and other products on U.S. markets, said the adoption of his amendment would begin to improve the Bring Jobs Home Act.\u00a0 The Mississippi Senator is critical of the underlying Democrat-sponsored bill, which is a partisan measure that, if adopted, would increase the deficit and do little to create jobs in the United States.\r\n\u201cIf the majority actually allows a debate to improve this bill, my amendment should be considered,\u201d Cochran said.\r\nA copy of\u00a0Cochran Amendment #3645 is available below.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=f1b86d54-308d-4b98-a9bd-8e05ee1f263a"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7831139266490936, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}