Study and report on expanding seafood processing capacity

(a) Study Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, shall conduct a study to evaluate methods to facilitate more domestic processing of United States-caught seafood in coastal communities, including— (1) an identification of coastal communities in which— (A) commercial fishing is a significant economic driver; (B) current processing infrastructure is not sufficient to meet the needs of the seafood industry; and (C) there exists a need and a voiced community desire for the creation of new, or the rehabilitation of existing, seafood processing infrastructure to allow the coastal community to process caught seafood and provide seafood to local, national, and international markets; and (2) an extensive evaluation of all potential Federal and State programs for facilitating the expanded processing of seafood, including recommendations to improve the access of seafood producers to those programs. (b) Report Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress, and make publicly available, a report describing the results of the study conducted under subsection (a).