Sound Program Funding Still in Doubt
The word from people who know what’s going on in Washington is that funding for the Long Island Sound Study isn’t in jeopardy as long as a Herculean effort is made to persuade lawmakers to increase the Bush administration’s pathetically low proposal.
What prompted my inquiry was an e-mail that went out this morning to the Long Island Sound Watershed Alliance from Robin Kriesberg at Save the Sound:
We were recently alerted to talk in Washington about substantial decreases in funding for the National Estuary Program and LIS.
Please fax the US Representatives from your State and let them know how important it is to fund LIS clean up. Attached please find example letters to house Reps and Senators that can be personalized and tailored to be from you or your organization. Also attached is a list of the most important NY reps to reach and their addresses and fax numbers.
You may remember (here, here and here) that there was a question about whether the administration’s proposal was a serious threat to the Sound program. My Washington source says today that the threat is real if the Sound’s constituents are complacent:
Sadly this is pretty much how it goes every year (or at least how it has gone every one of the 8 years I've been doing this). Big cuts in the Administration budget followed by herculean efforts like this one to restore funding. In that effort it is very important that every Connecticut and New York lawmaker hear from lots of constituents about how important this issue is. They don't just need to ask for the funding, they need to fight for it and make it a high priority amongst their own appropriations requests.
Just because it happens every year doesn't mean it's easy to correct every time!
If you’re on the LISWA e-mail list, you’ve already gotten the names and fax numbers of the pols you need to contact (regular letters apparently take weeks to be delivered because they’re scanned for anthrax).
If not, write to Robin and ask her to send them to you: rkriesberg@SAVETHESOUND.ORG.
What prompted my inquiry was an e-mail that went out this morning to the Long Island Sound Watershed Alliance from Robin Kriesberg at Save the Sound:
We were recently alerted to talk in Washington about substantial decreases in funding for the National Estuary Program and LIS.
Please fax the US Representatives from your State and let them know how important it is to fund LIS clean up. Attached please find example letters to house Reps and Senators that can be personalized and tailored to be from you or your organization. Also attached is a list of the most important NY reps to reach and their addresses and fax numbers.
You may remember (here, here and here) that there was a question about whether the administration’s proposal was a serious threat to the Sound program. My Washington source says today that the threat is real if the Sound’s constituents are complacent:
Sadly this is pretty much how it goes every year (or at least how it has gone every one of the 8 years I've been doing this). Big cuts in the Administration budget followed by herculean efforts like this one to restore funding. In that effort it is very important that every Connecticut and New York lawmaker hear from lots of constituents about how important this issue is. They don't just need to ask for the funding, they need to fight for it and make it a high priority amongst their own appropriations requests.
Just because it happens every year doesn't mean it's easy to correct every time!
If you’re on the LISWA e-mail list, you’ve already gotten the names and fax numbers of the pols you need to contact (regular letters apparently take weeks to be delivered because they’re scanned for anthrax).
If not, write to Robin and ask her to send them to you: rkriesberg@SAVETHESOUND.ORG.
posted by Tom Andersen at 1:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home