The RBFF Grant Termination Is a Warning Shot — and a Preview
On June 10, the Department of the Interior terminated funding for the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF). Not restructured. Not redirected. Terminated.
For months, the industry watched the delays, the silence, and the backpedaling while the administration refused to release funds already collected through excise taxes. And now we’ve got our answer: it was never about program goals. It was about dismantling anything and everything that helps people, communities, or the environment, especially if it works.
Because let’s be honest: this decision wasn’t about “priorities” or “efficiency.” It was about power. It was about gutting public infrastructure, stalling access, and choking off long-term investment so those dollars, and the systems they support, can be turned over to private interests.
Or maybe just to help pay for tax cuts handed to the wealthy while adding 3.3 trillion to the national debt. And let’s not forget the same people who made that happen will turn around and scream about “fiscal responsibility” the moment a program exists to help working families, young people, or anyone they’ve decided is less than.
The truth is, they only care about the national debt when the money is going somewhere other than their donors.
But people vote against their own best interest all the time…pushed by manufactured fear, a nonstop barrage of lies and distractions, and what we’ve come to call "politics," but is really just propaganda. It’s designed to divide us, distract us, and keep us too tired to fight back.
RBFF wasn’t some bloated federal boondoggle. It was an efficient, effective bridge between industry, conservation, and public access. Funded by excise taxes on boat fuel, tackle, and licenses…dollars already paid by boaters and anglers.
RBFF channeled that money into:
· $230.5 billion in economic impact: generated across the U.S. economy since RBFF’s founding, showing the compound return on those excise taxes
· 1.1 million American jobs: direct and indirect employment supported by boating, fishing, conservation, and related services.
· $2 billion annually for fisheries and habitat restoration: dedicated each year toward fish stocking, habitat preservation, research, and conservation projects in all 50 states
· $263 million in tax revenue: collected by federal, state, and local governments from the economic activity fueled by RBFF’s outreach and programs
All gone. Not because it failed, but because it succeeded. Because it made access more equitable. Because it put kids on the water and educated new anglers. Because it funded conservation without enriching the new American oligarchy. That alone makes it a threat to the kind of people currently calling the shots.
So what now? States are left scrambling. Youth programs are in limbo. First Catch Centers, Take Me Fishing campaigns, and state-level R3 (Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation) efforts are paused or defunded. And the ripple effects will hit every corner of the marine economy, from small-town marinas to OEMs, nonprofits to boatbuilders.
And let’s not pretend this is isolated. Just last week I was at SkillsUSA Nationals in Atlanta, representing the National Marine Electronics Association alongside Mark Reedenauer, President of the NMEA. We were there to support students pursuing skilled trades, including marine technology. The energy was inspiring, and the talent was real.
But SkillsUSA, like RBFF, relies heavily on federal support. And with the same administration quietly freezing and defunding programs across the board, from career training to environmental research, the warning signs are flashing in bright red.
This isn’t about politics anymore. It’s not about left or right. It’s about sabotage of public institutions, of future opportunity, and of the basic idea that public money should serve the public good, not just the powerful.
None of this is accidental. It’s a strategy. Starve the programs. Spread the lies. Blame the victims. Repeat.
J.Young
P.S.: These thoughts are 100% my own. I’m speaking as an individual while we still have the right.
