It’s Final: Lummis Wolf Delisting Rider Out!

The Cynthia Lummis Wolf Rider is out of the spending bill! This is a real victory for wolves and wolf advocates!!

Congress  passed a similar rider last Spring which removed ESA protections from wolves in the Northern Rockies, blocking legal challenges. Now the rider is being litigated as unconstitutional in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Because of that rider we have two brutal wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana, with wolves dying daily and an escalation of the brutality, the likes of which most of us have ever witnessed directed at an animal. The Endangered Species Act has been weakened. Maybe Congress didn’t have the stomach for a repeat of that with the 2012 elections looming.

F0r today, wolves in Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are safe. It’s not often we can  bring good news, lets savor it and live to fight another day!

What made the cut?

Wolves

They’ll still be wasting money chasing wolves around like terrorists and handing out payments to welfare ranchers.

“Wolf monitoring and

livestock loss programs are continued.”

===

Wildlife Services  

Wildlife Services had another 47 million cut from their budget which is a good thing but not enough.

“The bill includes $820 million – $47 million below last year’s level
for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). This funding level will continue
support for programs to enhance control or eradication of plant and animal pest and diseases.”

===

Concessions To Ranching, Inc.

More Giveaways 

•A provision to reduce litigation on grazing issues
•A provision to renew and streamline grazing permits
•A provision to exempt livestock producers from overly burdensome greenhouse gas
regulations

===

Summary: Fiscal Year 2012 Final Consolidated Appropriations Bill

http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/12.14.11_Final_FY_2012_Appropriations_Legislation_-_Detailed_Summary.pdf

====

What’s in and out of the bill?

Norm Dicks’ Statement & Summary of Conference Report

http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=314597

===

Photo: Desktop Nexus

Posted in: Wolf Wars

Tags: Lummis wolf rider out, Omnibus Bill 2012, Wyoming Wolves , Great Lakes Region Wolves

Lummis Wolf Rider Stripped Out of Budget Bill…Stay Tuned!

UPDATE

We read through the detailed bill summary on the House Appropriations Committee website.

It looks like the wolf rider has been pulled from the bill!! Will update you further if any wolf riders are detected before the final vote.

Summary: Fiscal Year 2012 Final Consolidated Appropriations Bill

These bad policies remain:

 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

•Wolf monitoring and livestock loss programs are continued.

Give-aways-to-rancher barons

 •A provision to reduce litigation on grazing issues
 •A provision to renew and streamline grazing permits
•A provision to exempt livestock producers from overly burdensome greenhouse gas
regulations

http://appropriations.house.gov/UploadedFiles/12.14.11_Final_FY_2012_Appropriations_Legislation_-_Detailed_Summary.pdf

===

Rogers: Final Appropriations Package Will Move Forward 

Washington, Dec 15-

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers has announced that the final fiscal year 2012 Appropriations legislation will move forward with the approval of House and Senate conferees.

“The House and Senate have reached a final agreement to move forward on the final fiscal year 2012 Appropriations legislation. I am hopeful that the House and Senate can pass this bill tomorrow to prevent a government shutdown, fund critical programs and services for the American people, and cut spending to help put the nation’s finances on a more sustainable path. In spite of many unnecessary obstacles, it is good to see that responsible leadership and good governance can triumph,” Chairman Rogers said.

The conference report is expected to be filed in the House later this evening.

UPDATE: 4:12 pm

This bill is not final until the Senate agrees to it. The House is negotiating with the Senate to come to an agreement tonight so they can bring the bill to a vote tomorrow.  Even though I don’t believe the wolf rider will be slipped back in, we cannot fully rest until the bill is agreed to by both houses of Congress and voted on.  Stay tuned!!

===

You can breath a sigh of relief, for now.  The Lummis wolf delisting rider, which would have delisted wolves in Wyoming, The Great Lakes Region and 29 Eastern states has been removed from the Omnibus budget bill.

“When the House Appropriations Committee posted the full text of the year-end spending bill that had been laboriously negotiated with Senate Democrats early Thursday morning, the wolf language was nowhere to be found.”

This is very good news a victory for wolves and wolf advocates but I’m still uneasy that someone might try to slip it in at the last-minute because they are still negotiating.

But for now we can savor this victory. We have not heard the last of wolf riders and wolf delistings but at least for today wolves in  Wyoming,  Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are safe.

===

Kline and Cravaack angry over dropped wolf provision

Posted at 4:05 PM on December 15, 2011 by Brett Neely

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/polinaut/archive/2011/12/kline_and_crava_1.shtml

===

Read the bill

H.R. 3671

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012

http://www.rules.house.gov/Legislation/legislationDetails.aspx?NewsID=661

DIVISION E

DIVISION E-DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED
AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2012
TITLE I
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

http://rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_1/legislativetext/HR3671-IH-P5.pdf

Top Photo: Ann S., Lawyer Mohawk, Ambassador Wolf (Wolf People)

Bottom photo: Wikimedia Commons

Posted in: Wolf Wars

Tags: Cynthia Lummis wolf delisting rider, Omnibus budget bill, Wyoming wolves, Great Lakes Region wolves, rider stripped from House Bill

Is Wolf/Delisting Rider In Or Out??? Start Calling!!

Are there budget /wolf riders in this document??

UPDATE DECEMBER 15, 2011

The clown show in DC is still dithering and no vote has been scheduled on the budget. If they don’t pass the Omnibus Bill or a Continuing Resolution by tomorrow, Friday, December 16, 2011 the government will shut down. Still no word if the Lummis wolf delisting rider is in or out of the spending bill. KEEP CALLING!!!!

===

Congress is back at it again. Remember the wolf delisting rider that Cynthia Lummis R-WY stuffed into the budget bill this past summer?

“U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., successfully inserted a no-litigation rider into a 2012 congressional appropriations bill, as well as a clause that would immediately put Wyoming wolves under state control.”

Well it’s rearing its ugly head again. The House and Senate are still in  negotiations to pass a budget bill before Friday, December 16, 2011 or face a government shutdown.  It’s call the Omnibus bill and in that bill lurks the wolf delisting rider, Sec.119.

The rider reads:

“Sec. 119. Hereafter, any final rule published by the Department of the Interior that provides that the gray wolf (Canis lupus) in the State of Wyoming or in any of the States within the range of the Western Great Lakes Distinct Population Segment of the gray wolf (as defined in the rule published on May 5, 2011 (76. Fed. Reg. 26086 et seq.)) is not an endangered species or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), including any rule to remove such species in such a State from the list of endangered species or threatened species published under that Act, shall not be subject to judicial review if such State has entered into an agreement with the Secretary of the Interior that authorizes the State to manage gray wolves in that State.”

Although there was word yesterday that the rider may have been stripped from the bill, it’s just a rumor.  The House and Senate Appropriations Committees  are still wheeling and dealing on the budget, so anything can happen. I won’t believe the rider is out of the bill until I see the language published on thomas.gov

If you remember this is exactly the scenario we faced last  Spring, when the battle over the budget included a wolf delisting rider that targeted wolves in the Northern Rockies.  81 Senators voted to delist wolves via budget/wolf rider and now we have two brutal wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana, with horror stories everyday about dead wolves or proposals to kill wolves. Aerial gunning, traps, snares, arrows, it goes on and on. Just today I read hunters are encouraging Montana FWP to institute trapping in the West Fork , to help kill more wolves. The entire situation is leaving conservationists horrified at the frenzy surrounding wolf killings. It’s as if there is nothing more important to these states then dead wolves. People are losing their jobs and homes yet the focus is on wiping out wolves.  It’s something I’ve never witnessed in my lifetime. Such reckless hate directed toward an animal. This is the result of  a wolf delisting rider that handed wolves over to hostile state management, proving wolves cannot recover in the lower forty-eight without federal protection.

It seems more likely now that Congress  will pass a Continuing Resolution or CR to keep the government running and prevent a government shutdown. That would be the best possible news for wolves because it means the wolf rider, probably hiding in the Omnibus budget bill, would be put on hold until Congress returns from holiday vacation. Still we can’t count on a CR being passed and have to assume the wolf rider/budget bill could  still  pass by Friday’s deadline.

Please start calling members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee, who are negotiating the budget bill. I’ve listed the names for both the Senate and House.  Even if the budget bill doesn’t pass on Friday and Congress adopts a Continuing Resolution to keep the government-funded, we’ll have delivered our message. When they come back from vacation and take this matter up again,  they’ll know we are ready to stand and defend wolves once again.

TELL THEM NO WOLF RIDERS, NO BAD ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS.

If they want to pass legislation they need to do it the right way and stop sneaking bad policy into spending bills that would never stand on their own. It’s  underhanded and thwarts the will of the people. We’ve had enough of their backroom politics.

We’re losing wolves daily in the Northern Rockies because of the bad wolf delisting rider passed last Spring. This can’t happen again. The Lummis  rider would delist Wyoming, Great Lakes Region wolves and possibly wolves in 29 Eastern states. It goes further preventing any judicial review.  Again, it’s Groundhog Day. The same ugly, “politics by rider” that’s caused so much suffering and cruelty against wolves in the Northern Rockies is threatening to wreak havoc again.

Call the Capital Switchboard number and ask the operator to speak to the Representatives or Senators listed below. Tell them NO to the wolf delisting/budget rider and all policy riders.  Please also call your own Representatives and Senators  to deliver the same message.

===

House of Representatives

http://www.house.gov/

US Senate

http://www.senate.gov/

===

Capital Switchboard Numbers

1-866-220-0044
1-202-224-3121 

===

US House of Representatives

Appropriation Committee Members

Republicans

Chairman Hal Rogers

Rep. C.W. Bill Young, Chairman Emeritus

Rep. Jerry Lewis, Chairman Emeritus

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen

Rep. Robert B. Aderholt

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson

Rep. Kay Granger

Rep. Mike Simpson

Rep. John Culberson

Rep. Ander Crenshaw

Rep. John R. Carter

===

Democrats

Ranking Member Norm Dicks

Rep. Peter Visclosky

Rep. Nita Lowey

Rep. Jose Serrano

Rep. Rosa DeLauro

Rep. James Moran

Rep. David Price

Rep. Sanford Bishop

===

US Senate

Appropriations Committee Members

Democrats

DANIEL K. INOUYE
Hawaii, Chairman

PATRICK J. LEAHY
Vermont

TOM HARKIN
Iowa

BARBARA A. MIKULSKI
Maryland

HERB KOHL
Wisconsin

PATTY MURRAY
Washington

DIANNE FEINSTEIN
California

RICHARD J. DURBIN
Illinois

TIM JOHNSON
South Dakota

MARY L. LANDRIEU
Louisiana

JACK REED
Rhode Island

FRANK R. LAUTENBERG
New Jersey

BEN NELSON
Nebraska

MARK PRYOR
Arkansas

SHERROD BROWN
Ohio

===

Republicans

THAD COCHRAN
Mississippi, Vice Chairman

MITCH MCCONNELL
Kentucky

RICHARD C. SHELBY
Alabama

KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
Texas

LAMAR ALEXANDER
Tennessee

SUSAN COLLINS
Maine

LINDSEY GRAHAM
South Carolina

MARK KIRK
Illinois

DAN COATS
Indiana

ROY BLUNT
Missouri

JERRY MORAN
Kansas

JOHN HOEVEN
North Dakota

RON JOHNSON
Wisconsin

===

Approps Deal May Mean Bad Holiday Season for Wolves

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/epepper/the_holiday_season_is_supposed.html

===

Lummis wolf clause still up in the air

 http://trib.com/news/opinion/blogs/capitol/lummis-wolf-clause-still-up-in-the-air/article_452e05fa-25cf-11e1-a62d-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1gUh2SQ9s

===

Short-term spending bill to avoid shutdown more likely than omnibus

By Erik Wasson – 12/13/11 08:50 PM ET

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/199239-short-term-spending-bill-stop-government-shutdown-more-likely

===

Photos: Wikimedia Commons

Posted in: Wolf Wars, gray wolf

Tags: budget bill shenanigans,  Wyoming wolves, delisting rider, Cynthia Lummis, Great Lakes Region wolves, bad budget riders