Blog

The Senate and House passed and the President will sign (today by electronic pen) a minibus that concludes three of the 12 annual appropriations bills for FY12 (Agriculture, Commerce Justice Science, Transportation-HUD). The bill includes significant cuts to Farmbill Conservation Title Programs (see below). The spending bill also includes an extension to the CR (that expires tonight) until December 16th. Since work as stalled on a second minibus for energy and water programs, it is growing more likely that the remaining spending bills (including Interior) will be bundled into a military spending bill that would serve as a vehicle for an end of the year omnibus. So there is still time to weigh in with your members about State Wildlife Grants. We would like them to support funding levels in the Senate Interior & Environment draft of $61.4M for SWG. Thanks to Missouri for sending letters up to their entire delegation this month.

Even though the federal fiscal year started on October 1, a final budget has not been passed and most of the federal government is operating under a continuing resolution (CR) until November 18th.

The SGCN tool is back!

The USGS compiled SGCN from each SWAP into a nationally comparable format to facilitate coordination of priorities & conservation actions across states, regions, and the country, in a common language.

We are requesting that each state review its list to confirm that it is correct. If any states have undergone SWAP revisions that led to adding/removing species, please submit your new SGCN list to AFWA.

The report of the President’s Task Force on Wildlife Diversity Funding was approved by the AFWA Executive Committee on September 19, 2011 at the AFWA Annual Meeting in Omaha, NE, and is now available.

Congress is in summer recess, so not much new to report on FY12. I’m hearing the House Interior Appropriations bill may make its way back to the floor the week after Labor Day but it will likely be for further debate on policy riders.