Oregon Public Broadcasting

Coastal salmon fishing operations have been waiting a while for some relief.

This year, those fishing operations have closed off the Pacific coast.

Since April, when the near-total fishing ban was put in place, fishermen have been looking for a way to get by.

One major hope was disaster relief money from the federal government.

The money was promised early on, but has taken a while to get here.

But, because of the successful vote on the farm bill in Congress Wednesday, fishermen will get $170 million in aid.

Democratic Rep. David Wu says Oregon's fishermen could get a good chunk of that.

He says the money may come faster this year than it has in the past.

David Wu: “Usually, there is a lag of several weeks to several months. This year we rushed it through with emergency declarations. We're doing our best to speed it up to avoid foreclosures, folks losing their homes and boats. Unfortunately we can't avoid all the pain but we're going to try our level best to speed things along.”

Fishermen say that at points it seemed doubtful.

Last week, West Coast politicians cried foul when President Bush proposed cutting $70 million of the proposed funding.

President Bush even vetoed the farm bill for something unrelated to the disaster relief money.

But both the Senate and the House voted to override the veto.