🚀 go-pugleaf

Western Ancient Forest Campaign <wafcdc@igc.apc.org> wrote:
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>-------------- Enclosure number 1 ----------------
>
>TO:       All Forest Activists
>FROM:     Jim Jontz & Steve Holmer
>DATE:     September 11, 1996
>
>SUBJECT:  Effort to Halt the Rider at Critical Junction
>
>
>     The next three weeks could determine whether literally
>hundreds of disastrous timber sales move forward under the
>Rescissions Act Logging Rider -- or whether they are stopped and
>thousands of acres of forests saved.
>
>     September is our last chance to Repeal the Rider.  Congress
>is planning to go home September 27th; they will not be in session
>again until after the Rider expires.
>
>     Our big opportunity is that some legislation must be passed
>between now and then to fund the government (including the
>Forest Service) after October 1.
>
>     The White House has said that they want the Rider repealed
>in the Interior spending bill that funds the Forest Service.  As
>recently as yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman wrote in
>the Washington Post that the Administration supports Rider repeal.
>
>     Yet we are facing a vote on the Interior Appropriations bill in
>the Senate probably next week, and we still do not have a Senator
>committed to offering an amendment to end funding for the Rider.
>
>     For months, the problem has been the preoccupation of the
>Democratic Senators with Sen. Craig's "forest health" bill.  That
>legislation now appears dead for the 104th Congress.  
>
>     However, we are hearing from our friends in the Senate
>(Sens. Bradley, Wyden, Boxer, and others) that they are still not
>ready to move forward.
>
>     If you are a constituent of Senator Wyden or Boxer, this is the
>critical moment for them to hear from you about the importance of their
>exercising leadership to offer an amendment.  If you can relay specific
>information about "forests at risk" from the Rider in your locale, so much
>the better.  Please send detailed information if you have it, so they can
>understand clearly why Rider repeal is necessary.  
>
>     It is not obvious, even though the White House position is in
>favor of Rider repeal, that there is significant effort by the White
>House to help find a sponsor.  If President Clinton wanted a
>Democratic Senator to offer such an amendment, it would be
>offered.   
>
>     This is the time to ask the President to keep his commitment
>to seek repeal of the Rider.  Please call the White House directly at
>(202)456-1111, and contact any "Friends of Bill" that you know to
>communicate the urgency of the situation and ask for the
>President's help.    
>
>     One other mechanism we are using to urge the White House
>to take action is a sign-on letter offered by Rep. Elizabeth Furse (D-
>OR) for Members of the House of Representatives to ask for
>cancellation of bad sales, and to encourage support for Rider repeal. 
>Our objective is to secure 146 signatures, enough to indicate support
>for override of a veto (should the President want to threaten one).
>
>     Please call your Representative, if he or she voted with us on the
>Furse amendment or if he/she should have, and ask for their signature on
>the Furse letter to halt bad Rider sales and repeal the Rider.  The House
>switchboard number is (202)224-3121. 
>
>     There is no question that, on its merits, the Rider should be
>repealed.  Recent editorials for rider repeal have appeared in such
>diverse papers as the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post,
>the Salina (KS) Journal, the Des Moines Register, the St. Paul (MN)
>Pioneer Press, the Madison (WI) Capitol Times, the Kansas City Star, the
>St. Louis Post Dispatch, and the Portland (ME) Press Herald.  In
>California alone, editorials have been printed in the Orange Co.
>Register, the Ventura Co. Star, the Pasadena Star News, the San Jose
>Mercury News, the Escondido North Country Times, and the San Francisco
>Chronicle. 
>
>     The only issue is political will.  Will the Administration and
>our friends in the Senate "step to the plate" to try to repeal the
>Rider, or will they just watch as the worst environmental law from
>the 104th Congress causes irreparable damage?
>
>     In the words of Jessica Mathews in her column in the
>Washington Post Tuesday, voters should know before Election Day
>"whether elected officials' professed concern for the environment is
>matched by action when it counts."
>
>     If we don't speak up now and insist that these remaining
>days of the 104th Congress be utilized to repeal the Rider, our
>opportunity will be gone forever -- as will some of the "last and
>best" of our nation's Great Forests.
>
>
>You people just dont realize how unpopular your cause has become.
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