Forwarded by Jane Clark at [log in to unmask]

Representative Latham is on the House Appropriations Committee and Senator
Harkin is on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Please contact them and
the rest of the Iowa delegation to request support for the $100 million
state fish and wildlife agency nongame grants in the FY2001 budget.

You should have all the legislators contact information, but let me know if
you need them. Because they are so important in this case, I will give you
Latham's and Harkin's email addresses again:  [log in to unmask]
and [log in to unmask]
Thanks!

MEMORANDUM

TO:          State Fish and Wildlife Agency Directors
                State Teaming with Wildlife Contacts
                State Wildlife Diversity Program Managers

FROM:   Naomi Edelson, TWW Director, IAFWA

DATE:    11 April 2000   SUBJECT:        Appropriations in President's
Budget: URGENT ACTION REQUESTED

President Clinton in his budget for this year (FY2001) included $100
million for state fish and wildlife agency nongame grants.  We encourage
you to contact your Congressional delegation to request their support of
this funding.  The IAFWA's Legislative and Federal Budget Committee made
such a recommendation in their overall FY 2001 federal budget
recommendations (see March 16th letter sent to state directors). For those
of you with Congressional members on the appropriations committee, you can
be particularly effective in making this request.  Members of the
Appropriations' Interior Subcommittee (the subcommittee that deals with
funding that goes through the Dept of Interior) are taking requests from
other Members of Congress right now.

When the President included these state nongame grants in his budget and
mentioned it in the State of the Union speech, we saw this as a very clear
sign of his support for using OCS funds for state wildlife conservation and
thus a significant victory for all of our recent efforts related to CARA.
BUT it also provides a very, very real opportunity to get money into state
programs this coming October.  As you know CARA does not take affect until
October 2001, and of course it has to actually pass for this to even
happen. In either scenario, this $100 million will provide states funding
for the year before CARA goes into effect and/or help build a case for the
need for greater funding through CARA.


Thank you in advance for you efforts!

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