Reptile & Amphibian Forums

has there been any news concerning HR669 lately? from what i have read, its still undecided, but i may have not have read it right.

take a look over at the ball python forum..

Sounds like they would have to rewrite the whole bill..
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1.0 Het Albino Burm
0.1 Albino Burm
1.1 Mojave Ball Pythons
0.1 Normal Ball Python
1.0 Albino Ball Python
1.1 Pastel Ball Pythons
0.1 Spider Ball Python
0.2 Het Albino Ball Pythons
0.1 Lavender Albino Retic

Seeking bigger cages for the family

VICTORY over HR669!!!

WE DID IT FOLKS!!!! Victory over HR669! You can thank yourselves and the Reptile Nation, for a hard fought Victory! Our nearly 50,000 grassroots letters and 1,000s of phone calls to the offices of the subcommittee members clearly prevailed at today's Insular Affairs Subcommittee hearing on HR 669. HR 669 in it's current form is finished. For anything to go forward it MUST be re-written from the ground up....and USARK will have a seat at the table along with other stake holders.

Delegate Faleomavega from Samoa said, "The letter and phone campaign hit the subcommittee like a BUZZ SAW". Harry Burroughs, of the subcommittee staff said, "I haven't seen a letter writing campaign like this in 30 years! You should be proud of yourselves." Take heart in the fact that the Reptile Nation stopped HR669 in it's tracks!!

We also need to thank Congressman Henry Brown, SC for helping us to focus our fight on the Subcommittee as opposed to the full House of Representatives. He is the one who instructed us to write real letters to be truly effective. He said emails are fine if that is all you can manage, but they can be filtered and deleted. There is no denying the weight of thousands of paper letters from American citizens. The Reptile Nation was responsible for 49,229 letters delivered to the Subcommittee in less than two weeks. Congressman Brown's staff made sure they all got in the door. 38,000 of those letters will be entered into the permanent record. Thank you my friends!

Credit should also be given to Bill Martin, a witness who testified at the hearing. He is the President of Blue Ridge Aquatics, a large multi-state Tilapia farming operation. They farm Tilapia as a food fish. He had some serious problems with the bill and the ear of much of the committee. His plain talk of how this bill would destroy hundreds of families hit home. What they do and the impact this bill would have on them parallels the plight of the Reptile Nation.

Senior Democrat staff from the House Committee on Natural Resources advised Subcommittee Chair Madeleine Bordallo that if she wants something to go forward she will have to go back to square one and draft a new bill. Then have another subcommittee hearing. When and if she does, USARK will be there to represent the interests of the Reptile Nation!! They probably will try, and that will be our challenge for another day. But Today VICTORY is SWEET!...... Celebrate today and rest, because tomorrow we must get ready to fight again.

Thank you Reptile Nation! Thank you Tom Wolfe. Thank you everyone who did their part.

Stay tuned... This fight has only begun!

USARK

A note from Tom Wolfe:

"The good news is, USARK engineered a significant victory which caught the attention of the entire membership of the Subcommittee and their staffs.

The bad news is this is just the first step in the process. Members of the Reptile Nation should be jubilant with this victory. However, our success should be measured, because the proponents of HR 669 will be back soon with another version of the same legislation. They will not rest, so we must not rest either.

Take satisfaction in a job well done and a victory well deserved, but know we all must rise up again to fight on because the battle has just begun!"

thats awsome!do you think that they are going to try this again?

Oh most definitely! This is why we can't let our guard down. We as a community have stood together with one voice, & hopefully we will remain united against those who would take our rights from us! Hopefuly the next draft of this bill will have some reason to it.

in that case tell everybody to keep a copy of the note they sent these past few months. im sure we'll need it.

I got this email from USARK this afternoon (4/27). It's not completely over yet. Everyone should sign up for USARK's emails to stay informed of this critically important issue.

Bill

Their email:

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