HR669 - Back to the drawing board

[PythonWallace]

Great Job... But it's NOT Over!!

Congratulations on a Job Well Done with HR669... but that was just the first Battle. We are fighting a war!

The effort put forth by the Reptile Nation in opposing HR669 was nothing less than monumental. A real letter campaign like that hasn't been seen in a long time. It made a HUGE impression. USARK is so very proud that the community has pulled together like never before to fight this bill. We gained an important preliminary victory... but this is far from over. It was just round one.

USARK has learned that the Defenders of Wildlife, Humane Society of the United States and The Nature Conservancy are going to meet with Delegate Bordallo's Subcommittee Staff in early May. The word is that they will be discussing a rewrite of HR669. They are expected to actually change the bill very little. The idea is to cut deals with the biggest opponents of the bill. We believe any proposal that involves a "white list" or a complicated permit system is a Deal Breaker for the Reptile Nation. That scenario we believe would eliminate the majority of animals and most hobbyist breeders. USARK will never endorse a deal that sacrifices any of our brothers and sisters.

This NEW bill is likely to be reintroduced under a new number in order to lose the stigma of HR669 as a tainted bill. It will cause confusion, but USARK will keep the Reptile Nation apprised of the facts as they develop.

Stay tuned to the latest developments on the USARK website. Prepare yourself for battle.

USARK

[Clear]

The fight has only started, this will be a very long process for us as a community.

[mainbutter]

I'm interested to see how they rewrite it.

I'd love to get some one-on-one facetime with people in congress who are proponents of this bill..

There is absolutely zero reason why any reptile needs a nationwide ban on importation, breeding, and keeping on the basis of protecting wildlife and north american ecology.

I would not be opposed to a nationwide ban on breeding zebra mussels and kudzu, but really who keeps zebra mussels or kudzu????

[JLC]

The fight has only started, this will be a very long process for us as a community.

Yes...it may very well be a life-long struggle. The extremist groups that want this so bad aren't going to just shrug their shoulders and kick the dirt in defeat.

I think it will be very important to push really hard when we have to...and then to "rest" while we can...because if we're always pushing hard, even when there is no real action to take, people will become jaded to the fear and blind to the alerts....and congress may become deaf to our voices.

It's critical to have the "look outs" posted at all times...and critical for those of us in any sort of leadership position to watch and listen to what those guys are telling us. But I also think it's important to let the overall community rest for a bit between battles, lest they become weary of the fight.

[RebelYell83]

my first though when i read this email a little bit ago,,,why is it just the proponents getting to sit there and try rewriting,why isnt our side there?

[MarkS]

USARK has learned that the Defenders of Wildlife, Humane Society of the United States and The Nature Conservancy are going to meet with Delegate Bordallo's Subcommittee Staff in early May. The word is that they will be discussing a rewrite of HR669.

The fact that the HSUS is even there to give input on a bill supposedly designed to help wildlife is a pretty good indication of what their REAL agenda is.

[ScottyBoa]

Welp I have all the templates we used last time saved and this time we're going to have a much better start on the letters since we'll know what to do right off the bat. We should make it a goal to beat the 50,000 letters from last time.

Hopefully Umbridge(Bordallo) will get discouraged eventually and they'll have to move on to someone else.

[grim reaper in NY]

Look for the same bill, just reworded differently to further confuse or blind those that opposed it the first time. That's the wonderful art of politics in our country. If you change a few words or phrases it makes it LOOK like the bill was rewritten, but in all actuality, it wasn't. It was only changed to sound prettier than it did the first time through the ringer. No matter what number they assign to it, it's still the same bunch of bushwah that we will ened to attack and expose for what it really is. Get ready for round 2 people!

[rabernet]

Welp I have all the templates we used last time saved and this time we're going to have a much better start on the letters since we'll know what to do right off the bat. We should make it a goal to beat the 50,000 letters from last time.

Hopefully Umbridge(Bordallo) will get discouraged eventually and they'll have to move on to someone else.

They've added two or three more co-sponsors - so don't forget them when we get called to send letters again!

[ScottyBoa]

Oh I know, as with all templates, they are just outlines. We'll have to get all the reps, make sure everyone knows to organize them by committee member and get the word out to everyone.

The biggest thing I worry about is we defeat this thing 3 or 4 times and people start to expect victory and let off the gas a little bit. I for one will NOT let that happen. I'd say we should plan on having to do the letter thing at least twice a year for the immediate future. Although giving us motivation to get organized was probably a huge mistake on their part(luckily).