Clan Alpine
Appropriations (spending bill) requests from Congress to committees for fiscal year 2025 are due by March 12. Members of the House and Senate make requests to specific committees. These requests are primarily to promote a project in their district. Committee and subcommittee members begin to make formal requests as a draft bill begins to form in their respective subcommittees.
In other words, your elected members to Senate and Congress can influence those on the committee and committee members have the greatest influence on the outcome of the bill.
Now is the time to try to get something into the 2025 fiscal spending bill.
President Joe Biden will send lawmakers his fiscal 2025 budget proposal March 11, days after his State of the Union address and a deadline to avoid a shutdown.
It is expected that his requests for the Interior Department (that includes BLM) will be essentially the same as his 2024 request. We expect to see the same budget for holding and “expanding fertility control” that we have been seeing since 2019. We do not expect to see anything that leads to reform.
The President’s requests will be reviewed by the committees and they will draft their own version. Those versions will be voted in by the full floor in House and Senate and then attempts to consolidate the 2 bills. The Appropriations bill goes through the same process as any other bill, except it originates from the desk of the President and ends there after all the debating is done.
The Glitch
We are facing another government shutdown next week. The 2024 spending package was passed in what is called a “Continuing Resolution” that keeps the government funded for short periods of time. There are 2 deadlines in this latest round: March 1 and March 8 (the March 8th deadline includes Department of Interior). Many people are expecting that a CR won’t pass this time and there will be a shutdown, if only a brief one.
All of this makes crafting a really simple request to your Representatives really important for the 2025 debate. When we have to address a volatile climate in DC, the chances of getting something addressed fall dramatically.
There is a really long list of things that most of you want to see happen. There are a number of avenues these things can be addressed. A lot of what we want to see changed could come from the Secretary of Interior in a simple memo because no new law is needed and she has that discretion (example: analysis of a zeroes out Herd Area for repatriation is already something the Secretary could direct, but not one ever has).
The likelihood of getting more than one change through Appropriations is slim in 2025. (More about the 3 branches and their powers HERE)
Injured mare left in sorting alley for 6 hours with rival stallions and their mares. The fighting was brutal while the crew ate lunch.
Suggestion: Keep It Simple
The vast majority of federal discretionary spending qualifies as programmatic funding. Programmatic requests are requests for Congress to fund an already-authorized federal program at a specific level or to include language directing a federal agency to implement a program in a specific way.
We know the program needs deep reform. Taxpayers should not be funding facilities that provide no access to the taxpayer to be able to assess how their money is being spent. The entire adoption and sale program need serious reform to provide oversight to stop wild horses and burros from slipping through the cracks and landing in the hands of kill-buyers. There are far too many things wrong with the BLM program to list.
Due to the chaos in Congress this year, we are asking that you focus on 2 distinct issues: gaining funding specifically for rulemaking for an enforceable welfare policy (as an incentive) and designated funding for foundational management plans (Herd Management Area Plans) and a report on management planning progress. Remember, in this Appropriations debate, all Congress can do is “fund or defund” something and they all have to agree on it. There are many “battlefields” in wild horse and burro advocacy.
The 2 things we are really trying to get into this bill would begin to formally address abuse and formally address actual on-range management planning that allows for public process. Both of these items are already part of existing law and programs Congress already funds, but BLM simply does not do. If Congress would name these items specifically in funding, BLM would be required to utilize the funding for those purposes.
You can read a longer list of things Congress could do in our 2024 long letter HERE,
Young burro with a floppy ear at Litchfield, showing tag number.
If you would like to help us push to get specific funding for an enforceable welfare policy and actual on-range planning in the 2025 Appropriations bill, CLICK HERE to make the request to your Reps.
Learn more about Herd Management Area Plans (HMAP) and how that is the first step to addressing many of the on-range issues that have been neglected for decadesCLICK HERE
Learn more about the need for formal rulemaking to gain an enforceable welfare policy CLICK HERE. (This article carries and additional action item asking that the 2024 bill be amended to include funding for rulemaking)
As the 2025 Appropriations battle moves forward, we will continue to update you and modify action items accordingly.
We need your help to continue to document, expose, work toward reform with lawmakers and litigate. Our wild ones deserve to live free on the range and free from abuse.
Thank you for keeping WHE on the frontline in the fight to protect and preserve our treasured wild ones.
Categories: Wild Horse Education
You must be logged in to post a comment.