From flemingm@u.washington.edu Tue Jan 17 11:32:43 PST 1995 >From flemingm@u.washington.edu Tue Jan 17 11:32:42 1995 Return-Path: Received: from saul5.u.washington.edu by lists.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.32 ) id AA12534; Tue, 17 Jan 95 11:32:42 -0800 Received: by saul5.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.32 ) id AA16780; Tue, 17 Jan 95 11:32:39 -0800 X-Sender: flemingm@saul5.u.washington.edu Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 11:32:39 -0800 (PST) From: Melissa Fleming To: PSSCB@zoology.washington.edu Cc: consbio@u.washington.edu Subject: Immediate Action to Protect the ESA Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Other Forwards deleted... Apologies for any cross-postings ----- Forwarded message begins here ----- From: Carolyn Marn Fri, 13 Jan 1995 14:58:05 -0800 (PS To: scbinfo@gaia.ucs.orst.edu Subject: Immediate Action to Protect ESA Funding!!! (fwd) Let's give the Honorable Mr. Bunn a few calls! I don't know why his fax number is not listed... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 13 Jan 1995 13:16:43 -0800 From: David Orr - UC Davis To: Multiple recipients of list ECOLOGY Subject: Immediate Action to Protect ESA Funding!!! Subject: Alert: Interior Approps. may cut ESA funding ENDANGERED SPECIES COALITION ACTION ALERT PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATELY WITH A GREAT DEAL OF VIGOR!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The new anti-environmental leadership of the 104th Congress may take a blatant back-door approach to gutting the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It has been no secret that House Resources Committee Chair, Don Young (R-AK), want to gut the ESA. Now is appears that The House Interior Appropriations subcommittee will recommend that funding for the US Fish & Wildlife Service=EDs endangered species program be eliminated as part of a rescission package. [This process involves reviewing the already approved 1995 fiscal year budget to identify funds that have not yet been spent and could be withheld when appropriators come up with their first package cuts in the next 60 days.] This rescission bill may be introduced as early as the next two weeks. Although details are not final, the bill is likely to mirror part of a newly introduced Senate bill by Kay Bailey Hutchison, (R-TX), that would eliminate all funding for critical habitat or new species listings until the ESA is reauthorized. Your help is needed to make sure that Interior Appropriations Subcommittee members know that this attempt to steal dollars from endangered species will not be tolerated. In fact, your elected representative needs to know that any attack on the ESA will be very costly to any re-election attempt. Call or fax your Member on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. If your Member is not on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, make sure a friend or colleague who is in one of the following congressional districts makes a call. Interior Appropriations Committee: Regula, Ralph; Chair Yates, Sidney; Ranking minority leader phone fax Regula, Ralph OH (R-16) 1-202-225-3876 1-202-225-3059 McDade, Joseph M. PA (R-10) 1-202-225-3731 1-202-225-9594 Kolbe, Jim AZ (R-05) 1-202-225-2542 1-202-225-0378 Skeen, Joseph NM (R-02) 1-202-225-2365 1-202-225-9599 Vucanovich, Barbara NV (R-02) 1-202-225-6155 1-202-225-2319 Taylor, Charles Hart NC (R-11) 1-202-225-6401 1-202-251-0794 Nethercutt, George WA (R-05) 1-202-225-2006 1-202-225-7181 Bunn, Jim OR (R-05) 1-202-225-5711 Democrats Yates, Sidney R. IL (D-09) 1-202-225-2111 1-202-225-3493 Dicks, Norman D. WA (D-06) 1-202-225-5916 1-202-226-1176 Bevill, Thomas AL (D-04) 1-202-225-4876 1-202-225-0842 Skaggs, David E. CO (D-02) 1-202-225-2161 1-202-225-9127 ------------- BACKGROUND ------------- According to the Congressional Quarterly, Don Young, (R-AK), will not allow any more funding of the Endangered Species Act unless he can force through major changes in its regulatory reach. House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Regula, (R-OH), says that there is no general strategy by the Republican leadership to bar funding for programs with expired authorizations [like the ESA, whose authorization ran out in 1992]. Regula did confirm that Young could block funding for the ESA, however. In a recent interview, Young stated the following about ESA reauthorizing; "...Number one will be a revision of the Endangered Species Act .... Intent will be explained again and put into law what the Endangered Species Act was meant to be. That will be done. We hope to have that done within six months." ------------------ TALKING POINTS ------------------ =46unding for conservation programs within the Department of Interior=EDs budget accounts for only 0.193% of the total federal budget. The federal government would spend less than $60 million on endangered species in 1995. This is less than 25 cents per US citizen per year. The amount spent on all endangered species programs per year is equal to about 1 mile of new urban interstate highway. Elimination of below cost timber sales in National Forests would save more than $200 million per year. Elimination of the Forest Road programs from the 1995 Interior budget would save nearly $100 million. Slashing a few bucks from the Interior budget now from endangered species protection will cost the American public far more 10 years down the road. Remember: The Endangered Species Act Protects US! --- end forwarded text  Immediate Action to Protect ESA Funding!!! ------ Forwarded message ends here ------ ****************************************************************** Mark Hixon Department of Zoology phone: (503) 737-5364 3029 Cordley Hall fax: (503) 737-0501 Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331-2914 USA Internet: hixonm@bcc.orst.edu ****************************************************************** .