From Chad Smith at American Rivers, forwarded by Jane Clark

Good news!  Karen McCarthy (D-MO) is going to introduce the Missouri River
Valley Improvement Act in the House.  We hope to introduce the bill
tomorrow
or Monday at the latest to give us a short amount of time to get the bill
in
the House version of WRDA before the end of next week.

We are frantically trying to rustle up some original co-sponsors.  We need
your help to make that happen.

Here is who we are contacting.  I've included the office, the staff contact
and phone number, and the status:

Ganske (IA) - John Eichberger, 202-225-4426 - thinking about it
Latham (IA) - Hayden Milberg, 202-225-5476 - too short of notice

Congressman Ganske would be a great sponsor for the bill.  The contact in
Congressman Ganske's office is John Eichberger (202-225-4426)

As you know, there are a lot of great things in the bill for Iowa,
including
MoREAP, expanded funding for the Missouri River Fish and Wildlife
Mitigation
Project, Lewis and Clark Interpretive Centers, and other goodies.  Plus,
the
bill does not hurt anyone and does not include any mention of the
controversial flow issues we are all engaged in.  This would be an
opportunity for Congressman Ganske to do something positive for the
Missouri
River and Iowa, and it will be a great opportunity for him to get good
press
and editorials.

Please call these people TODAY and urge them to have their boss co-sponsor
the bill.  Tell them the bill is non-controversial, it does not include any
flow-related issues, it's an easy win for the environment and recreation
and
riverside communities, and they will get great press out of it.  In terms
of
the tight deadline, you can tell them that we are trying to get this bill
in
both the House and Senate WRDA, and both versions of WRDA will be marked up
next week.  If the bill doesn't get into WRDA by then, forget it.

Please call these staffers yourselves, and have everyone possible in your
groups make calls as well.  We have to make these calls TODAY or we will
probably miss the chance to get a good group of co-sponsors before the bill
is introduced.  Feel free to engage whatever resources you can to start
flooding these offices with calls of support.

Thanks so much for your help, and let me know if you have questions or need
more information.

Chad Smith, Director
Missouri River Field Office -- American Rivers
Mill Towne Building
650 J Street, Suite 400
Lincoln, NE 68508
402-477-7910
402-477-2565 (FAX)
402-730-5593 (CELL)
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