Action Alert: NAIS in Appropriations Bill


The 2009 omnibus Appropriations bill, HR 1105, passed the House last week. The
bill includes $14.5 million of funding for NAIS, which is significantly less
than the amount requested by the USDA for FY 2009.

Representative Obey (D-WI) included a statement in the record about the intended
uses of the appropriations for the USDA, including timelines and performance
goals for NAIS. This statement does not mandate NAIS because it is not part of
the bill itself. But it implies approval of USDA's Business Plan and pushes
USDA to move forward with implementing it, including the use of existing disease
control programs and other coercive tactics to implement NAIS.

Call your Senators and ask that they support an amendment to strip the NAIS
funding out of the bill! You can find your Senators' contact information at
www.congress.org or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

The good news is that it appears that the provision that would have required the
School Lunch Program to buy meats only from NAIS-registered farms did NOT make
it into the omnibus Appropriations bill. Thank you to everyone who contacted
their Congressmen last summer and fall to oppose that provision!

To read the Omnibus Appropriations bill, go to www.thomas.gov and enter "HR
1105" in the search box. Click the option for "Bill Number" and then hit
"search." Rep. Obey's explanatory statement can be read by clicking on the link
for "H1653-H2088" under "Note" (towards the top of the page of the search
result).

OTHER NEWS:

The House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry has announced that it
will hold a hearing on Wednesday, March 11, on "animal identification programs."
The agenda and list of witnesses is not yet public. Look for an alert as soon
as we get more information!

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