Spending Bill, until the next round

By Laura Leigh on May 2, 2017

This is a VERY fast post to talk about the spending bill. Most of this language that takes us through 2017 is “held” to the places outlined in the Omnibus bill for fiscal year 2017. The BIG battle on Appropriations is coming in the FY 2018 bill.

Politico ran a small piece on a few things that were hidden in the bill and you can see it here: http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/05/02/6-policies-congress-hid-in-the-new-spending-bill-000431

When WHE reviewed it yesterday what we saw, because we are wild horse focused, are two concerns:

The “any reasonable plan be adopted” has connotations about “what is reasonable” that are disturbing as states and profit driven interests will see opportunity most American’s could not afford to engage. We also see this as a place for debate on having those with only dollar signs in their eyes move into agreements that disallow public participation, observation, removals of horses and a potential “give away” or subsidy creation.

The other is the creation of the BLM nonprofit. House bill 1668 was not approved yet the language was snuck into the bill. This gives profit driven interest more influence. It also has the potential to hurt efforts by existing non profits to help wild horses. With only one cosponsor and not even passing the House this smacks of Conrad Burns and sale authority snuck into the Omnibus in 2004. Read here: https://wildhorseeducation.org/2017/04/02/hr-1668-not-a-good-thing-for-wild-horses/

This nonprofit should not be formed without due process. It should not be snuck into the spending bill. This was wrong on many levels.

We need to be really careful right now about all the things people point fingers at and keep watching for the sneaky things.

If you want to “complain” about the non profit being formed that gives more power to big money influence, without process, you can call:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Chair, Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee

DC office: (202) 224-6665

AK office: (907) 271-3735

Sen. Tom Udall, Ranking Member, Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee

DC office: (202) 224-6621

NM office: (505) 346-6791

Rep. Ken Calvert, Chair, House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee

DC office: (202) 225-1986

CA office: (951) 277-0042


Rep. Betty McCollum, Ranking Member, House Interior Appropriations Committee

DC office: (202) 225-6631

MN office: (651) 224-9191


We need to be ready to defend the concept “appropriate” within an agency where even the National Academy of Sciences takes issue with ow they use that word to even define the number of wild horses on the range as “appropriate.”


Fast Washington update. More soon.

Main website: http://WildHorseEducation.org


EDIT: WE are getting emails from people freaking out about the language again on the transfer of horses from BLM to Forest Service (this references the transfer or “adoption” of a horse by an agency, not an individual. In 2016 they did the same thing for nonprofits etc so that organizations, not individuals, could take horses). We explained that in a QnA video during FY 2017 Appropriations last FALL, when this happened before. This is NOT a “freak out over the moon” thing. Last year we added that it would be appropriate to use a definition of workhorse and add the language of the prohibition for sale to slaughter. The prohibition language was added, we were told the definition of workhorse is defined by the adopting agency ie pack horse, patrol officer, etc). We will write more soon. (If the issue you have with language “no oversight after title, and that is an issue, you need to address that program wide in adoption and sale across the board, everyone).