Oct 22, the House will hold a hearing on Extremism, with a focus on threats to federal workers, Protecting Federal Employees and Ending the Culture of Anti-Government Attacks and Abuse.

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) has released a new report to assess “security requirements.” The report outlines at least 360 threats and assaults against employees of four agencies from fiscal 2013 through 2017. The FBI investigated “under 100” of these as domestic terrorism cases, from zero to 99.  The range of intimidation against federal employees included attempted murder.  https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/701712.pdf

The review was requested by the Democratic chairman of the U.S House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Raul Grijalva. It covered four agencies: the Forest Service, BLM, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service.

You can watch the hearing LIVE with us (we will have additional links and commentary running during the hearing). https://wildhorseeducation.org/live-update-page-house-hearing-10-22/

We understand this will be part of a series of hearings and probes. 

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This is a very serious issue and extends beyond threats to federal workers, it includes threats to the public.

We thank all of our readers that took action and urged that this hearing not be forgotten.

In 2016 an informal hearing was held because, at the time, the Ranking member of the House committee, Rob Bishop (R-UT), would not allow a formal inquiry.

There were two hearings in 2016 that anyone that advocates for wild horses should be aware of: the informal one on Extremism, and a formal one on wild horses.

We urge you to read this article from 2016 and watch the video: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2017/05/17/posttruth-a-few-wild-facts-you-should-know-in-these-dangerous-times-part-one/

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In the world of wild horses we often see a serious disconnect; wild horses are treated like they are a distinct issue and not part of public lands management.

This has led to a time where million dollar corporate advocates took advantage of the destabilized environment and began making “back door deals” with those associated with the extremist movement. These corporate entities did not care about the increased dangers they created for advocates on the ground doing real work in field, they cared about jumping on the privatization wagon and getting hands on a slice of the subsidy pie.

Please keep taking action against the “Path Forward.” https://wildhorseeducation.org/2019/08/30/report-countdown-who-why-and-what-you-can-do/

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We are getting ready for a repeat of the past: a hearing on wild horses is also being scheduled. At the head of the guest list are corporate advocates in it to get a slice of the increase in the Appropriations bill. The hearing on wild horses is likely to be the same as in 2016, controlled by extremism with a limp response from the advocacy community.

At a time when the acting head of the BLM, William Perry Pendley, calls wild horses the greatest threat to pubic lands we need more than a chat about “fertility control” from advocacy.  Pendley has deep ties to the extremism movement.

Two acting Deputy Directors, Brian Steed and John Ruhs, also have ties to this movement and were instrumental in the creation of “Path Forward.” Both of these men are no longer in the seat at the helm. It should be noted that John Ruhs was brought into Nevada and sat at the helm of the BLM state office after the Bunkerville, Grass March and Fish Creek Fiasco. Under Ruhs the extremists were given priority, their demands were all met and then Ruhs was promoted to National. Ruhs now sits at the helm of BLM in Idaho where the agenda still takes priority.

Our complaint against Brian Steed with the OIG was taken seriously. Steed stepped down under complaints from multiple entities that had a similar foundation to ours: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2019/06/14/wild-horse-organization-accuses-blm-deputy-director-of-illegal-action-calls-for-investigation-by-oig/

Zinke met with extremist groups that placed National Monuments and wild horses at the top of their list: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2019/03/06/underneath-the-headlines-wild-horses-and-national-monuments-hand-in-hand/

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BLM s now two months beyond the deadline for the Report to Congress on the wild horse program. The report has the fingerprints of Ruhs, Steed, Protect the Harvest and the corporate lobby groups behind “Path Forward.”

We have information that indicates BLM is frantically padding the document with layers of paperwork in the same manner they craft roundup EAs, copy/paste. The information is the same as what BLM gave to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and it does not pass scientific muster. However, congressional aides are not scientists.

WHE continues to call for an investigation into BLMs Wild Horse program. However, there is a real danger in this “pay to play” system that wild horses be left out of any serious probe.

In August of 2017 we asked that you join us as we push for a probe into Interior. Over 12,000 people signed on to support the call.

You can still sign the letter to support a probe that includes wild horses. Your endorsement of our action might yet be enough to get the information included in the probe.  https://wildhorseeducation.org/2017/08/08/support-the-probe-into-interior/

Bullies do not simply exist outside federal agencies threatening “federal employees.” The extremist movement has deep ties inside federal agencies, threaten their own employees and increase dangers to the public (and advocates). BLM currently rewards a culture of bullies from the large to the small (including harassment on social media).

The investigation can not simply stop with external threats to federal employees. It needs to include a deep probe inside the agency and threats to the public at large. 

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Tomorrow we will bring you our live updates during the hearing. They will be available on this website for you to view if you can not watch the hearing. 

WHE LIVE update page: https://wildhorseeducation.org/live-update-page-house-hearing-10-22/

For background on this movement and how it directly effects wild horses you can read our 5 part series; Wild horses and the public land seizure movement: https://wildhorseeducation.org/wild-wild-horses-and-the-public-land-seizure-movement/

We urge you to check out the 2016 hearings: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2017/05/17/posttruth-a-few-wild-facts-you-should-know-in-these-dangerous-times-part-one/

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We need your help to stay in this fight.