I heard on an emergency basis from an associate organization (Great Old Broads for Wilderness yesterday, and they are encouraging us to rally as many people as we can to address the following issue: there is a heinous piece of legislation (Senate Amendment No. 2175, sponsored by Senator Barrasso) that we need to lobby Bingaman's office in force ASAP, as this may get passed in the next week or two if it is not prevented by the committee that Bingaman is the chairman of. I am pasting a copy of the letters for Bingaman and additional info below. Please read and express yourself if there is any way you can. This is a major assault on the health of public lands. I would like to see the Southwestern Region of the NSS added to the list. I think this could be done by an EC decision to join in with other earth conservation organizations to fight this intrusive step backwards on federal public lands. Linda Starr
Dear Senator: We urge you to oppose Senate Amendment No. 2175, sponsored by Senator Barrasso, as being considered for inclusion in S. 3240, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012. SA. 2175 would gut conservation protections that are associated with the management of livestock grazing on federal lands. In addition, the amendment is an unnecessary and gross overreach by proposing to fundamentally alter the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Furthermore, the attempt to legislate such changes by using the Farm Bill as a vehicle is an inappropriate venue to entertain such wholesale changes. In addition to doubling the current term limit for a grazing permit by extending these privileges to 20-years, our organizations are concerned about the impacts of SA. 2175 by granting the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of the Agriculture unchecked powers to exclude the management of livestock grazing from environmental review. This is most evident in the amendment’s provisions to limit environmental review as required by NEPA by allowing the US Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to issue categorical exclusions (CEs) for the review of grazing permits. The use of CEs unnecessarily undermines the public’s right to participate in the management of federal resources that belong to all citizens. By limiting the use of NEPA, the public will be denied opportunities to positively contribute to management decisions by the BLM and the USFS. Historical use of categorical exclusions for the renewal of grazing permits has been defined by mismanagement, which have imperiled critical natural resources. But these categorical exclusions would not be issued in a vacuum given that SA. 2175 combines three sweeping new powers: 1) by extending grazing privileges to 20-years; 2) allowing the BLM and the USFS to indefinitely determine when and whether to review grazing permits at their sole discretion; and 3) granting these agencies the authority to issue CEs to avoid environmental analysis – SA. 2175 creates a perfect storm that would virtually lock the public out of the process in regard to how federal livestock grazing is managed on the nation’s public lands. It could be decades before anyone could ascertain the impacts of decisions related to the renewal of individual grazing permits. Two decades or more, with no public discourse or an environmental review, is an excruciatingly longtime in overseeing the management of these resources. Two decades is too long to sit idly by, for the ecological health of the nation’s rangelands are always in a constant state of flux. We believe that the hundreds of millions of acres of federal rangelands, as managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service respectively, must be conducted in a transparent manner to ensure that these critical resources remain conserved in a manner befitting their extraordinary value. SA. 2175 will undermine the fundamental goal of ensuring that the public can exercise its rights to directly contribute to the conservation of the nation’s rangeland resources. Please oppose the passage of Senate Amendment No. 2175. Thank you for considering our views. Subject: [grazing] Farm Bill & Hill Update To: Public Lands Grazing <graz...@groups.b-team.org> Cc: Stephen Schima <step...@saveourenvironment.org> Wanted to update everyone from DC on what is happening vis-à-vis the Barrasso amdt and the Farm Bill. The Ag Cmte have entered into prolonged talks with the R’s to work out a potential deal on what amdts will be allowed to go forward. At last count, we are now nearing 200 amdts (and still growing). A number of the new amdts are focused on public lands, including a Risch amdt that grants local control over monuments (but no new amdts specifically grazing related). The sheer enormity and breadth of these amendments is trying the patience of the Senate – so it is increasingly likely that the D’s are going to push harder to block all any and all of the amdts that are not germane. These matters are not likely to be resolved in the next 48 hrs – so things are moving at a slower rate than they were yesterday. On a separate Hill matter, the House just posted in the Rules Committee a notice that they will be taking up an omnibus lands package on the floor that includes the Grazing Improvement Act of 2012 (meaning that a floor vote on this package could happen in the House later next week, but probably the week after). This package also includes a host of other bad bills, in particular the notorious Border Bill. See http://www.rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_2/LegislativeText/CPRT-112-HPRT-RU00-HR2578.pdf But back to the Farm Bill, here is the near final list of organizations that are the Barrasso letter– huge thanks to everyone who has responded. American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign Bear River Watershed Council Biodiversity Conservation Alliance Californians for Western Wilderness Center for Biological Diversity Center for Food Safety Conservation Northwest Defenders of Wildlife Environmental Protection Information Center Grand Canyon Trust Great Old Broads for Wilderness KS Wild Los Padres ForestWatch Natural Resources Defense Council Oregon Natural Desert Association Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility The Rewilding Institute Rocky Mountain Wild Sierra Club Southern Environmental Law Center Western Watersheds Project WildEarth Guardians Wildlands CPR Wild Utah Project Bobby McEnaney Natural Resources Defense Council 202.289.2429 |cell: 202.306.2260 bmcena...@nrdc.org From: McEnaney, Bobby Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 6:19 PM To: Public Lands Grazing (graz...@groups.b-team.org) Subject: RE: Urgent Sign-on Letter - Oppose Barrasso Farm Bill Amdt Hello, Wanted to update the list regarding the Farm Bill. There are currently 90 amendments filed in the Congressional Record and more are on the way for later tonight. Barrasso’s grazing amendment is still on file. In the next 24 to 48 hours, Ag Committee Staff are working on a deal to narrow the final field down. We are hopeful that non-germaness will be applied as one of the tests for exclusion given that Barrasso’s grazing amendment is clearly not germane, and we are doing our best to communicate as much to Hill staff. Given the current situation, the deadline for the letter has been moved to 10 AM est., Tuesday morning. Here is the list of organizations that have signed on so far (and if I missed your organization, profound apologies, and please let me know of the error): -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Rio Grande Valley Broadband" group. 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