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Miller introduces legislation to Protect America’s Wildlife
Miller introduces legislation to Protect America’s Wildlife
Bill Outlaws Controversial Airborne hunting of wolves and bears
WASHINGTON, DC – Alaska’s wolves and bears would be protected from the controversial practice of airborne hunting under legislation introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) today. The Protect America’s Wildlife Act, or PAW Act, protects wolves, bears, and other wildlife from the unethical, unscientific, and unsportsmanlike practice of airborne hunting.
The PAW Act closes a loophole in the 1971 Airborne Hunting Act that outlawed airborne hunting across the nation. Alaska officials have exploited that loophole to permit individual hunters to shoot and kill more than 1,000 wolves using aircraft in the past six years.
Miller, a long time leader in Congress on conservation, environmental, and natural resource issues and former chair of the House Natural Resources committee, released the following statement after introducing the legislation:
“The state of Alaska has been operating an airborne hunting program that has blatantly ignored federal law, ignored Alaskans’ opposition, ignored the science, and ignored even their own wildlife experts. It’s time to ground this air assault on wolves. The PAW Act is urgently needed to close the loophole in federal law and protect our nation’s wildlife from the unethical and unsportsmanlike practice of airborne hunting.”
In 1971, as a response to public outcry over airborne wolf hunting, Congress passed the Airborne Hunting Act to prohibit shooting or harassing animals from aircraft. For the last several years, however, individual hunters in Alaska have been granted permits to shoot hundreds of wolves from aircraft under the guise of wildlife management, but without any credible scientific justification for the need to remove predators to protect prey — in clear violation of the intent of the federal ban.
The PAW Act makes it clear that Alaska’s activities are a violation of federal law and that states can use aircraft for legitimate animal control purposes in circumstances where land, livestock, water, pets, crops, or human health and safety are at risk.
The PAW ACT was introduced by Miller along with 105 bipartisan cosponsors. Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced identical legislation today in the Senate. The legislation has already received the official support of nine former members of Alaska’s Board of Game and wildlife conservation groups, including Defenders of Wildlife.
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energyandenvironment
natural resources
PAW
Posted by Peake, Amy at 10:10PM | Comments () | TrackBack (0)
Statement on PAYGO
Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this legislation to help restore fiscal responsibility. And I salute President Obama and Majority Leader Hoyer for their leadership on this important issue.
Listening to this debate today might leave the American people confused about Republican values.
Republicans regularly declare their fidelity to controlling federal spending. And they claim to want to fix our broken health care system. And yet, Republicans oppose our common-sense “pay-as-you-go” legislation. And Republicans oppose our historic health care reform bill.
My question to the Republicans is simple:
When they controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House for eight long years, why didn’t they control federal spending or reform health care? Why is it that the first thing they did with their power was to cut taxes for the rich without paying the cost? They did it in 2001 and 2003, turning budget surpluses into deficits.
Why is it that they added a record number of earmarks to the appropriations bills, running the deficit up further? And why is that in eight years they never, ever made health care reform a priority? NOT EVER.
Meanwhile, Americans’ health care costs kept rising. And insurance company denials of care continued. And the number of uninsured grew.
Eight years of all-Republican government -- spending the taxpayers’ money like drunken sailors, rising deficits and inaction on health care.
But they have made rhetoric a priority. And they have made politics as usual a priority.
Now that they are out of power, they speak about controlling deficits and reforming health care, but they openly state that they hope our president fails.
Their record is a shame and has really hurt our country.
I have been a supporter of “pay-as-you-go” budgeting since 1982, when I introduced the first PAYGO bill.
When liberals and conservatives worked together with President Clinton to adopt PAYGO rules, Democrats reigned in historic budget deficits left over from President Reagan and President Bush in the 1980s and early 1990s. And we recorded budget surpluses.
President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress eliminated PAYGO rules. As a result, interest payments on the long-term debt are crowding out national priorities. In 2007, Democrats made PAYGO part of our rules again. Our legislation today strengthens those rules by giving them the force of law.
Our bill says Congress could neither cut taxes nor increase entitlement spending without first deciding how to afford those new costs. PAYGO requires difficult decisions about national priorities and how to afford them. If we can’t pay for new tax cuts or entitlement spending, we can’t have them. It is that simple.
PAYGO will strengthen the economy by helping to reduce interest payments on our debt, and by helping us to address our health care reform, modernizing energy policy and college affordability.
Our health care bill, for example, will not increase the deficit one dime. And our new college affordability bill is also fully paid for, and will actually return $10 billion to help reduce the deficit.
Democrats are working hard to ensure that, going forward, we exercise the fiscal discipline that hard working Americans need and expect from us. Vote yes on PAYGO.
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Posted by Peake, Amy at 07:34PM | Comments () | TrackBack (0)
Bill introduced to Provide Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans
Bill Introduced to Provide Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans
Bill Covers 97 Percent of Americans, Embodies President Obama’s Goals of Lower Costs, More Choices, and Access to Quality, Affordable Care
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Chairmen of the three Committees with jurisdiction over health policy in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced comprehensive health care reform legislation today that will reduce out-of-control costs, encourage competition among insurance plans to improve choices for patients, and expand access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.
The legislation, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, is consistent with President Obama’s overall goals of building on what works within the current health care system by strengthening employer-provided care, while fixing what is broken. The bill will ensure that 97 percent of Americans will be covered by a health care plan that is both affordable and offers quality, standard benefits by 2019.
The House Committees on Education and Labor, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce have been working together in an unprecedented way as one committee to develop the proposal for health care reform. This week each of the three committees will be marking up the legislation, allowing for continued input from members of Congress and the American people.
Posted by Peake, Amy at 08:53PM | Comments () | TrackBack (0)
