Report compiled by Cindy MacDonald, Carla Bowers and Leslie Peeples
House Increases Funding For Failed Program Riddled With Controversy -
Senate Poised To Seal The Deal – Can They Be Swayed?
Senate Poised To Seal The Deal – Can They Be Swayed?
The out-of-control direction the BLM is taking the Wild Horse & Burro Program spells the imminent extinction of America’s wild and free-roaming iconic herds in the West.The Senate will vote sometime this week or next on whether to approve the House appropriations bill to increase funding for the DOI/BLM Wild Horse & Burro Program. If Congress wants to reduce spending, it can be done here and now. The requested additional $12M can be eliminated immediately and the $18M costs for FY11 roundups and processing can be redirected to actual reform of this acknowledged broken Program.
In July 2010, Congress members sent a letter urging the BLM to refrain from any further
action or roundups until the Program failings were remedied and a clear new plan was in
place. Yet last week, the House did an about face and awarded the BLM an additional $12M through a Continuing Resolution (CR). According to the GAO, the BLM WH&B Program has been moving in a fiscally unsustainable direction and yet, this Program was one of the few awarded a full funding increase. Additional provisions were slipped in the bill that will have long-term detrimental impacts on the herds and will be very difficult to reverse if enacted.
action or roundups until the Program failings were remedied and a clear new plan was in
place. Yet last week, the House did an about face and awarded the BLM an additional $12M through a Continuing Resolution (CR). According to the GAO, the BLM WH&B Program has been moving in a fiscally unsustainable direction and yet, this Program was one of the few awarded a full funding increase. Additional provisions were slipped in the bill that will have long-term detrimental impacts on the herds and will be very difficult to reverse if enacted.
Though the WH&B Program has been widely acknowledged as reaching critical levels of concern, curiously the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies failed to meet and mark up the FY11 DOI Budget Bill in 2010, according to public records and inquiries of staff. Thus, the WH&B Program was never even discussed.
Historically, reports on the Program have been government-generated and influenced, have consistently whitewashed the issues and have misled Congress, the most recent being the “Independent Designated Observer Pilot Program Final Report October 2010” and the “DOI OIG Report on the BLM WH&B Program, C-IS-BLM-0018-2010 December 2010”.
To offset the obvious lack of credible checks and balances or oversight of the Program, an independent Report to Congress was recently released in late November 2010. This Report exposes the blatant misrepresentations and deceptions occurring within the DOI/BLM WH&B Program utilizing the BLM’s own documents and data. The Report is meant to truthfully inform Congress about the gross discrepancies uncovered before the Senate commits to further funding that perpetuates the ongoing abuses within the Program.
Refer to Report to Congress: “Refuting FY2011 Budget Justifications & Request to Defund
Roundups & Removals Through Appropriations For FY2011 & FY2012”
Roundups & Removals Through Appropriations For FY2011 & FY2012”
Click (HERE) to Download Report
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