America COMPETES Act - Time-Sensitive Request! - FaunaClassifieds
FaunaClassifieds  
  Tired of those Google and InfoLink ads? Upgrade Your Membership!
  Inside FaunaClassifieds » Photo Gallery  
 

Go Back   FaunaClassifieds > Laws, Legislative Issues & Alerts > General Legislative Discussions

Notices

General Legislative Discussions Any general discussion concerning legislative issues or events. Not necessarily specific to a particular region, or even a type of animal group.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-29-2022, 11:59 PM   #1
bcr229
America COMPETES Act - Time-Sensitive Request!

https://usark.org/2022lacey/

Buried within the 2,912 pages of the America COMPETES Act of 2022 lie Lacey Act amendments that affect all non-domesticated pet owners and the greater pet community. COMPETES is an acronym for Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength. The stated purpose of the Act is to strengthen America’s economic and national security but obviously, this was slipped into the massive bill in hopes to go unnoticed.

The amendments would reverse the USARK federal lawsuit victory by reinstating the ban on interstate transportation of species listed as injurious under the Lacey Act. The bill would also create a “white list” (see #2 below) that could affect millions of pet owners, as well as pet businesses. If your species of interest, even your pet, is listed as injurious (which could happen because it can survive outside somewhere in the U.S.), then it cannot be transported across state lines. That means you could not even take a pet with you if you moved to another state or needed veterinary care across a state border. This does not just ban sales but prohibits all interstate transportation. This will trickle down to hundreds or thousands of common pet species.

The America COMPETES Act may pass in the House next week. If passed in the House, it will then be sent to the Senate to be reconciled with an innovation policy package called the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, or USICA, that passed in the Senate last year. The America COMPETES Act is the House Democrats’ response to USICA (which does not contain the Lacey Act Amendment). The House Rules Committee will hear the America COMPETES Act on February 1, 2022. It may go to a House floor vote the next day. This is the same language we saw introduced by Florida Senator Marco Rubio as Senate Bill 626 in 2021.

Briefly, the amendments will:

Provide that the Lacey Act bans the interstate transport of species listed as injurious. Specifically, it replaces Lacey’s current language ‘‘shipment between the continental United States’’ with ‘‘transport between the States.”
Create a “white list” of species that can be imported. This means that any animal (reptile, amphibian, fish, bird, mammal, invertebrate) that is not on the white list is by default treated as an injurious species and is banned from importation.
Create a new authority allowing FWS to use an “emergency designation” that becomes effective immediately after being published in the Federal Register unless an extension of no more than 60 days is allowed. That means no due process, public input, hearings, advanced notice, etc. for injurious listings.
Permit FWS to not allow importation if a species has not been imported in “minimal quantities” (to be defined) in the year prior to the enactment of this Act.
The effective date would be one year after the enactment of this Act.
Read the relevant amendment text (these are pages 1661-1665) at https://usark.org/wp-content/uploads...21-excerpt.pdf.

In our landmark court decision, four federal judges agreed that USARK was correct and that the Lacey Act (Title 18 Section 42 of the U.S. Code) did not ban interstate transportation of injurious species based on the original language of the Lacey Act and the intent of Congress. As a result of this fight for our members and the herpetocultural community, this meant animals domestically bred under human care could be moved and sold across state lines (within the continental United States). For herpetoculturists’ concerns, this included some species of constrictor snakes and 201 species of salamanders.

What To Do

Through Feb. 2, contact the House Rules Committee and your federal Representatives. Remember to be civil and professional at all times. Please personalize/edit your letters, if possible. If the bill passes the House with the amendments, then attention must turn to the Senate.

1. Call your Representatives’ offices (link below) and the Rules Committee at (202)-225-9091;
2. Email Representatives (link below);
3. Fax letters to (202)-226-9191 and your Representatives;
4. SHARE this and encourage others to complete the Alert!!!

Find your U.S. Representative: https://www.house.gov/representative...representative

Simply go to the link above and enter your zip code. Your Representative will appear. Just click on his/her name to send them emails through their websites. You will simply complete the contact form and copy your version of the sample letter below.
The America COMPETES Act was referred to the House Rules Committee on Ways and Means. You can find those members at https://rules.house.gov/about/rules-committee-members. If your Representative is on this Committee, be sure to contact them and tell them you are a negatively affected constituent.
Subject line:
NO to Lacey Act Amendments in America COMPETES Act

Sample letter

I implore you to remove the Lacey Act amendments found in the America COMPETES Act (pages 1661-1665) as your constituent, dedicated advocate for ecological conservation, and pet owner. The lack of forethought involved makes these amendments rife with unintended consequences and government overreach.

Not only would these amendments be devastating to thousands of businesses of all sizes (which is absolutely contrary to the purpose of the COMPETES Act), but millions of pet owners would be harmed. As seen previously when listing species as injurious under the Lacey Act, a heavy-handed brush is used to paint species as injurious that may only be an issue for one or two states, and hardly any large percentage of the U.S. While a concern for only one state, all other states feel the unjust implications and restrictions. For example, even after Florida had addressed injurious threats from certain snakes, the federal government still listed them as injurious and harmed thousands of owners and businesses across the U.S. where the snakes could not possibly have an impact. And now, while Florida has completely banned these species, herpetoculturists in all other states would suffer from the overreaching government action should these amendments pass into law. Even though peer-reviewed science found that these species risks to the continental U.S. were isolated to southern Florida and possibly a small spot in Texas (both states that had already regulated these species), the federal government felt compelled to take tyrannical action.

If these amendments pass, the Lacey Act will leave pet owners everywhere unable to move across state lines with their family pets. This restriction would include prohibitions of interstate travel for veterinary care, for educational programs, and for relocation of family. The impact will be disproportionately felt by military service members, who are often relocated multiple times during a pet’s lifetime.

The federal and appellate courts have already decided that a ban on interstate transportation with injurious species is not based on the original intent of Congress, but a gradual overreach by the federal agency. This upholds that banning interstate transportation is overreaching and that only the localities, or states, with range matches should consider regulations regarding these species. Incorporating interstate movements into the Lacey Act will turn law-abiding pet owners into potential criminals.

Regulation of wildlife has traditionally been a matter reserved to the states. State borders are already secure from injurious and invasive species as those states have the authority to regulate them. States continue to take measures regarding such species and since the climate varies so greatly across the U.S., the states should decide which species need to be addressed, not the federal government which must consider the entirety of the U.S. as only one climate zone. I cannot elaborate enough on the need to regulate injurious species at the state and local levels, not nationwide by a federal agency.

The interstate transport ban under the Lacey Act is not my only concern. The bill’s section titled Presumptive Prohibition on Importation is especially alarming. This section would allow for every non-native species to be treated as injurious, even if not listed as such. This language creates a white list (accepted) that produces a black list (banned) by default. The opportunity for injustice and oppressiveness is disturbing!

Rather than this new knee-jerk and supreme authority provided to the federal agency, any expansion of the Lacey Act to create interstate movement bans and a ‘white list/black list’ scenario should include reforms to the injurious listing process, including proof of widespread impact based on sound, peer-reviewed science, and definitely not the biased, pseudo-science witnessed previously. I also believe that the role of the States should be preserved in matters related to the regulation of wildlife within their borders or through regional agreements. Individual states are best positioned to assess local threats and balance the relative costs and benefits of prohibiting species.

These Lacey Act amendments are far-reaching and, frankly, un-American. Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter. Please realize that the Lacey Act amendments found within the America COMPETES Act are illogical and unjust. Have a good day.

Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ________

The entire America COMPETES Act can be read at https://rules.house.gov/sites/democr...-RCP117-31.pdf.
 
Old 01-30-2022, 12:13 AM   #2
WebSlave
Many years ago, I predicted that sooner or later, everyone upon being able to read will be issued a pamphlet. That pamphlet will itemize EVERYTHING that is legal for you to do. If it is not in that pamphlet, then it is ILLEGAL. White lists such as in the above proposed bill, go a long way to that end.

If it ain't on the list, you can't have it.
 
Old 01-30-2022, 10:40 AM   #3
Socratic Monologue
Done.

FWIW, I'd sure be up for a sensible and focused legislative discussion about restricting certain imports and interstate transport and species possession in the interest of environmental safety. But a sensible discussion is going to have to admit that cats and cattle are more environmentally destructive than any number of herps (outside Florida and Hawaii, perhaps), and since virtually no one is going to go down that logical path then that idea is moot.

That sensible discussion would also have to take on board the idea that "states rights" is a relevant stance in some situations (local environmental concerns), and not in others (regional/national/global environmental concerns; civil rights), but the fact that there is a bit of subtlety involved may be too much for many constituents of both flavors (why are there only two? Perhaps that's the root of the problem here) to comprehend.

Yeah, the "white list" idea makes me want to shout down my telescreen.
 
Old 01-30-2022, 12:24 PM   #4
WebSlave
Somewhere, on some planet, in some other solar system, aliens are laughing their asses off observing one invasive and injurious species having this sort of discussion about other invasive and injurious species.
 
Old 02-07-2022, 06:52 PM   #5
bcr229
Unfortunately this did pass the House so use the link above to contact your senators if you haven't already!
 
Old 02-09-2022, 11:52 AM   #6
TomC
us fws has always been about enforcement rather than preservation of wildlife. please copy and paste the sample letter that us ark has and e-mail it to your senators in your state to get this hopefully voted down. it does not cost any money and it took me less than five minutes to do both e-mail letters to my two senators in california.
 
Old 02-13-2022, 09:13 PM   #7
bcr229


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnZeIcKlhNg

Excellent video about the proposed amendments.
 
Old 02-13-2022, 09:19 PM   #8
V675210
"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." - Thomas Jefferson

If this law pass I will still ship reptiles hey they do it now with drugs using fedex
 
Old 03-28-2022, 09:20 PM   #9
bcr229
UPDATE 3/28: Following a roll call to limit debate on the measure (cloture), the Senate voted 68-28 to send its version (text from S1260) of this bill back to the House. Next, the House will reject this bill. This was the process needed to set up a cross-chamber conference committee to settle on the final language for the bill (reconciliation of the two bills).

UPDATE 3/24: As we have reported for nearly two months, the America COMPETES Act text will be swapped with the language from the Senate version (U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, or USICA). This should occur on March 28. USICA does not contain the Lacey Act amendments of concern. The bill will then be sent back to the House. Following this action, a committee of Senators and Representatives will form to reconcile the two bills. We must keep voicing opposition to keep the Lacey Act amendments from making it back into this bill.
 
Old 07-29-2022, 11:15 PM   #10
bcr229
Talking

Lacey Act Update
We have been posting relevant updates on our main alert page at https://usark.org/2022lacey/. To be brief, the “CHIPS-Plus” bill that passed in the Senate passed the House on 7/28 (243-187 vote). This bill includes some of the technology initiatives included in the America COMPETES Act, USICA, and other bills. The portions of COMPETES that were not germane to the intent of the bill (including the bad Lacey Act amendments) were not added to the CHIPS-Plus package. This should be the end of any threat from these Lacey Act amendments for this Congressional session.
 

Join now to reply to this thread or open new ones for your questions & comments! FaunaClassifieds.com is the largest online community about Reptile & Amphibians, Snakes, Lizards and number one classifieds service with thousands of ads to look for. Registration is open to everyone and FREE. Click Here to Register!

 
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Croc Jaws More Sensitive Than Human Fingertips wcreptiles Herps In The News 0 11-13-2012 06:04 AM
[For Sale] THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL! Time sensitive! xenesthis13 Insects and Arachnids For Sale/Wanted Ads 0 07-15-2010 10:40 PM
Shipping Heat Sensitive Herps - Need Info Abby Shipping 4 06-13-2010 04:17 PM
The Sensitive Man.... GottaLuvHerps Just For Laughs 2 12-20-2008 01:12 PM
sensitive tail? snakeworshipper Ball Pythons Discussion Forum 7 04-17-2007 06:23 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:10 PM.







Fauna Top Sites


Powered by vBulletin® Version
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Page generated in 0.11100698 seconds with 11 queries
Content copyrighted ©2002-2022, FaunaClassifieds, LLC