Congressional advocacy

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Congressional advocacy

Postby PYoungbaer » Sep 22, 2011 11:17 am

Next Thursday, Sept. 27, a whole host of advocacy organizations, primarily wildlife and environmental, who have been working the halls of Congress for the past couple of years, will be meeting in Washington. I plan to participate by phone, as I have in the past. Cheryl Jones will attend in person, as she has in the past.

I expect that most discussion will focus on the ongoing requests for direct research funding, a difficult subject in the current fiscal environment. Discussions may include both the current budget cycle (not likely to be decided until the "super committee" set up after the debt ceiling deal, as well as setting the stage for next year's Congress. These budget discussions have included efforts within both the Department of Interior, as well as the Department of Agriculture.

The WNS National Plan may also come in the discussions, as many of the activities are highly dependent on appropriations. Similarly, the attempt in the U.S. House of Representatives to totally defund any work whatsoever on the Endangered Species Act, which failed early in the summer on a bi-partisan vote, may also be discussed. The recent settlement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, which lays out a schedule for endangered species reviews in exchange for no further litigation, may also be discussed.

Readers here are familiar with the efforts the NSS has made in both live testimony before Congress, as well as in extensive formal comments and in the legal arena. What I'm looking for here and now is for NSS members to pass on any additional comments or initiatives you would like us to bring up in the meeting.

Comments may be posted here on Cave Chat, or you may feel free to PM me or send me an email at wnsliaison@caves.org. Thank you.
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Re: Congressional advocacy

Postby BrianC » Sep 22, 2011 3:30 pm

PYoungbaer wrote: the attempt in the U.S. House of Representatives to totally defund any work whatsoever on the Endangered Species Act, which failed early in the summer on a bi-partisan vote, may also be discussed. The recent settlement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, which lays out a schedule for endangered species reviews in exchange for no further litigation, may also be discussed.

Comments may be posted here on Cave Chat, or you may feel free to PM me or send me an email at wnsliaison@caves.org. Thank you.


Before I would agree to allowing the CBD to schedule any ESA reviews, I would vow to de-fund the ESA in less than a heartbeat!
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Re: Congressional advocacy

Postby PYoungbaer » Sep 22, 2011 9:28 pm

Brian,

Just to clarify, we're not discussing whether or not to allow such a thing. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service negotiated a settlement with CBD et al which laid out a timetable over the next several years. This was just approved by a federal judge. It's a done deal. Of note vis a vis WNS is that the Northern Long-eared and Eastern Small-footed bats aren't scheduled for their reviews until 2013. The Little Brown bat was not part of the settlement, as there was no pending listing petition. 757 total backlogged species were subject to the agreement.
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Re: Congressional advocacy

Postby DeanWiseman » Sep 23, 2011 3:39 am

PYoungbaer wrote:The WNS National Plan may also come in the discussions, as many of the activities are highly dependent on appropriations. Similarly, the attempt in the U.S. House of Representatives to totally defund any work whatsoever on the Endangered Species Act, which failed early in the summer on a bi-partisan vote, may also be discussed. The recent settlement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, which lays out a schedule for endangered species reviews in exchange for no further litigation, may also be discussed.


Trouble with WNS is that it seems to me that it almost fits right down between the cracks of the current governmental framework. I find myself at times wishing for a well-defined, easy-to-follow research-minded task force... where the funding mechanism almost resembles what in the NIH is called a "Program Project Grant." Basically a form of a block grant, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary synergy and shared resources.

But in any case, get whatever damn money OUT of the administrative and legislative centers of gravity (coordinators, agencies, and committees), and into effectors' hands--research, census, remediation. Secondly, would love to find some way to structure the funding mechanism to support a long-term academic life cycle... with an emphasis on 5 years, 10 years, or even 20 years. Good luck with that, but my point here is that it may take such a temporal commitment in order to convince would-be researchers that their careers won't dry up right in front of their eyes as they're scheduled for tenure review and promotions. A 1-2 year outlook on a funding mechanism is better than nothing, but damn near hopelessly myopic.

:bat sticker:

-Dean
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Re: Congressional advocacy

Postby PYoungbaer » Sep 23, 2011 11:26 am

Dean,

Your point is well taken and one I've often heard among the academic researchers commiserating about the temporal nature of the WNS funding streams. This is one reason we've advocated for direct appropriations to the National Science Foundation, among others, which recognizes the long-term needs of researchers. Thankfully, the NSF has awarded at least one long-term WNS research grant to Boston University (Kate Langwig working under Tom Kunz).
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Re: Congressional advocacy

Postby wyandottecaver » Sep 26, 2011 5:48 pm

how about asking for some scientific integrity? citing unpublished articles and spurious statements with no empirical data as justification for management policies is ridiculous.

On a different track, how about managing caves as ecosystems and not just bat houses?
I'm not scared of the dark, it's the things IN the dark that make me nervous. :)
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