PDA

View Full Version : mnibus House Vote Delayed Till After Feb 23rd



ATVsToday.net
02-18-2009, 12:36 AM
Land Rights Network
American Land Rights Association
PO Box 400 - Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: 360-687-3087 - Fax: 360-687-2973
E-mail: alra@pacifier.com
Web Address: http://www.landrights.org
Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE - Washington, DC 20003


Updated, S22 Omnibus House Vote Delayed Till After Feb 23rd


-----All S22 opponents must deluge their Congressman with calls opposing
this giant omnibus land grab bill. Remember, the House is using the Senate
number S 22.

-----Even if you have called before, call again and again. Keep up the
pressure.

-----You must make your Congressman responsible for his or her vote on S22.
He or she must know you and your allies will not forget and that he or she
will be held accountable. That is the only way you can compete in this new
Congress. Organize teams to call your Congressman and keep calling.



See Below How Your Senators Voted On S22 Omnibus Lands Bill


You want to make sure you give your Senators the credit they deserve.


-----If you do nothing else, please forward this message to as many people
as possible on your list.


-----House Vote On S22 Likely After February 23rd – Call Now!

-----You must deluge your Congressman with opposition to S22.

Call, fax, e-mail and visit your Congressman.

-----Every Congressman must know in advance there will be a cost to them
associated with their vote on S22.

-----If you fail to make them believe that, you will have no chance to
compete in Congress in the next two years.


-----Call your friends, neighbors, and as many others as you can.

-----S22 Includes Babbitt 26,000,000 Acre National Landscape Conservation
System.

-----150 Wilderness And Lock Up Bills Included In Omnibus Land Grab.

American Land Rights Will Send The Results Showing How Your Congressman
Voted.

You Have Little Time To Call And Make A Difference.


-----Background

Dear Land Rights Ally:

You can help stop the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill (S22) that passed the
Senate a few days ago. You now must focus on your Congressman.

It’s critical that you call, write, fax and e-mail too. You don’t have time
to use US Mail. Send your letters by fax or e-mail. Time is urgent.

The Omnibus Federal Lands bill is one of the largest land grabs in history.
Just one bill in the 150 bill package, the National Landscape Conservation
System (NLCS), covers 26 million acres and will lock you out of BLM
multiple-use, energy lands, national monuments and Wild and Scenic Rivers.
Grazing, mining, forestry and many other uses will be greatly affected.

S22 will add dozens of new National Heritage Areas and Wilderness Areas that
will eventually be a land use control network strangling hundreds of
thousands of local people and rural America.

-----You can see a map of the National Landscape Conservation System at
www.landrights.org. Go to the home page to get more information about the
National Landscape Conservation System and how much damage it will do to
you.


In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) bought votes by putting
every bill he could find in the package to buy off opposing Senators. In
other words, he looked for a bill that each Senator wanted and put it in the
bill. That way few Senators would oppose him even though this bill is
likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and do great damage in their
individual state.

An example is Senator Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. S22 puts a road through a
Wildnerness area that she wants. So she is ignoring the National Landscape
Conservation System, also in the bill, that will do great harm to the people
of Alaska. Senator Murkowski voted yes on S22.

The House is using the Senate number S22. The vote will be soon. The
danger from an omnibus bill is that they package all the lands, Wilderness,
Wild and Scenic Rivers and any other bills of that type they can find into
one bill. It’s likely your Congressman has something in the bill.

The strategy is that by giving every Congressman something in the bill they
want, they won’t oppose the bill when it comes up for passage. They won’t
look at all the other bad stuff. And the leaders are usually right.

-----You need to insist that your Congressman ask for a vote on each
individual bill. Let your Congressman know you will hold him or her
accountable for the vote on S22.

-----
American Land Rights will send you the vote results so you can give your
Congressman proper credit.
-----

A major problem is that S22 is over 1,000 pages long including over 150
separate bills. It’s likely that not a single Congressman has read the
entire bill. So there are bills included that your Congressman would likely
oppose if they came up as a single bill.

This practice of using omnibus bills puts you in grave danger.

When you call your Congressman (every Congressman can be called at
202-225-3121) you must not only oppose the various land grab portions of the
bill, but you need to make a big deal about your
Congressman voting for an omnibus bill where he has never read the entire
bill.

You need to make an issue of the fact that he is not protecting you or doing
his job. If they have not read the bill, they should not vote for it.

Each bill should be considered on its own merits and not as a fruit salad.
Everything we have told you in the past about S22 in the Senate is the same
for S22 in the House.

Here are just a few reasons why you should oppose S22.

-----1. S22 puts into law the 26,000,000 acre Babbitt National Landscape
Conservation System locking up energy and access to Federal lands. It locks
you out. S22 puts National Park type land use controls over every BLM
National Monuments, Wild and Scenic River and lots of other areas.

-----2. Creates many new Wilderness Areas and Heritage Areas. Millions of
acres locked up.

-----3. S22 takes about 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300
million barrels of oil out of production in Wyoming, according to the Bureau
of Land Management. The energy resources walled off by this bill would
equal our domestic natural gas production for 15 years.

-----4. S22 would spend $1 billion on a water project designed to save 500
salmon in Calif. At $2 million a head, each salmon would be worth far more
than its weight in gold.

-----5. S22 would spend $3.5 million to celebrate the 450th birthday of St.
Augustine Florida in 2015.

-----6. S22 spends $250,000 to help bureaucrats decide how to designate
Alexander Hamilton’s boyhood home.

-----7. S22 spends $5 million on botanical gardens in Hawaii and Florida.

----- These are only the tip of the iceberg. It goes on and on and on.
There are over 150 different bills in S22. So the total cost will be in the
billions of dollars. The regulatory and land use limitation implications of
this bill are enormous.



-- Action Items – You must call your Congressman before Feb. 23rd.

-----1. Please join other landowners, users of Federal lands, and rural
Americans to defeat the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill – S22. Remember that
this bill includes the dreaded 26,000,000 acre Babbitt National Landscape
Conservation System.

-----2. Please send a letter by fax or e-mail to your Congressman opposing
the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill – S22. You do not have time to use regular
mail.

-----3. You may call any Congressman at (202) 225-3121. Ask for the staff
person who handles Federal lands issues and in particular the Omnibus
Federal Lands Bill. Ask for their fax number and e-mail address.


There is no way to overstate how damaging S22, the Omnibus Federal Lands
Bill, is to you. It affects everyone and is the largest land grab in the
last 30 years. ALRA is sending letters, faxes and e-mails to hundreds of
thousands of people.

It must be an all out effort. This is an incredible land grab. Please do
your part. Please help build a broad based coalition nationally to stop
this incredible land grab.


Chuck Cushman
American Land Rights Association
(360) 687-3087
ccushman@pacifier.com