FYI The email address for Jim Leach listed below didn't work...

-----Original Message-----
From: Iowa Discussion, Alerts and Announcements
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Neila Seaman
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 10:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ACT: Arctic drilling in House budget

Arctic Update

TIMING AND NEXT STEPS:
As you all know, last week by a razor thin margin, the Senate passed a
Budget Resolution which includes a reconciliation instruction to the Senate
Energy Committee to authorize oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge.  The Senate Energy Committee must now craft legislation to open the
Arctic Refuge to oil and gas leasing in hopes of $3 billion of revenue to
the federal treasury.  That reconciliation language will then be folded into

the overall Budget Reconciliation bill which must be passed by the entire
Senate. However, the Senate will then be forced to conference its version of

the Budget Resolution with the House version.

The conference report is subject to a straight up or down vote in both the
House and Senate.

The House Budget Committee is scheduled to mark-up their Budget Resolution
on March 29.  Last year, a similar attempt to advance Arctic drilling
through  the budget process failed in the House of Representatives where
objections from moderate Republicans forced leadership to strip Arctic
drilling language from a larger budget package.

Thanks to the grassroots pressure and the renewed  opposition from House
moderate Republicans, House Budget Committee Chairman Nussle has recently
been quoted as saying that his budget will NOT include Arctic drilling
language.   This does not mean the battle in the House is won.   We must
keep up the pressure.  Even if Arctic drilling is not included in the House
budget at this time, this is very likely a strategy to get a budget through
the House and to conference where we fully expect that they will try insert
Arctic into the final Conference Report.

Now is the time to turn up the heat on the House.  Please contact Rep. Jim
Leach and let him know you do not want Arctic drilling language included in
the House budget.  Rep. Leach can be contacted at 202-225-6576 by phone, 
202 226-1278 by fax or by e-mail at [log in to unmask].


Neila Seaman, MPA
Director
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA  50310
[log in to unmask]
515-277-8868

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