As I understand it, this is not a proposed bill, but regulations being put forth by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. Proposed regs are written by the federal bureaucrats in Washington, many times with help from public interest groups or lobbists. Federal bureaucrats are the people who work for the government. In many cases they are much more powerful than our elected officials, especially if they have been there a long time. I've seen government agencies drag out implementation of a signed bill for years because they didn't like it or through proposed rule making, change the entire concept of a signed bill.

We should be smart by sending well thought out comments and answers to the questions in the proposed regs to US Fish and Wildlife, the agency who has proposed these rules. But lets not stop there - we also need to hit our elected officials hard with letters. Heat can be applied by the politicians to the bureaucrats. We need to find some fellow reptile enthusiasts in congress, especially if they are on the committees that oversee Fish and Wildlife. Does anyone know of any US elected official that keep reptiles that could help? We may also want to identify those congressmen that are against taking away individual's rights with big government regulations - they may be another source of help. Anyone know the names of these elected officials that we could get to help us?

As we send letters to our congressmen, it is important to send them to those whose districts include where you live. "I live in your district and I am very concerned about the regulations being proposed by . . . . " It is also important to send letters to those congressmen who sit on the house and senate committees that oversee US Fish and Wildlife within the Department of Interior. While they may not be sympathetic to our fight, they could be overwhelmed by the number of letters and decide there are bigger issues to concern themselves with, especially if they are up for election. I believe in the House it is the Committee on Natural Resources, sub-committee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans. Their link follows.

http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/...page&Itemid=60

In the Senate, I believe the committee with jurisdiction over US Fish and Wildlife is the Committee on Environment and Public Works, but I may be wrong here. Their link is

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.c...n=Members.Home

We need to make sure that these committees have jurisdiction over Fish and Wildlife, but that may have to wait until tomorrow. If so, these are the congressmen and women we need to target in addition to our local representatives and senators.

Let's keep the good ideas flowing . . .
-----
Alice Cobb
Florida Reptile Room

[ Show Entire Thread ]