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) [log in to unmask] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]