: Pombo for Chairman of the Resources Committee


Crowdog
11-13-2002, 12:20 PM
*** POMBO FOR CHAIRMAN !!! ***

*** ACTION ITEM BELOW ***

Due to the retirement of Chairman Jim Hansen, there is a vacancy for the
chairmanship of the House of Representatives Committee on Resources. The
Resources Committee oversees many of the issues most important to private
property rights and federal lands, including the Endangered Species Act,
energy and mineral exploration, recreational access to federal lands,
international environmental treaties, forest health, water rights, national
parks and wildlife refuges and the Bureau of Land Management.

Congressman Richard Pombo has announced he is running for the Resources
Committee chairmanship. Others are seeking this influential post also, but
Pombo is the best of the bunch. Richard Pombo has been our very best
advocate in Congress since the day he was sworn in to the House of
Representatives ten years ago, and has earned our support in his bid to
become chairman.

Within a few weeks after taking office, Pombo established the Congressional
Task Force on Private Property Rights (a later version of which became the
Western Caucus). He then began challenging land acquisition funding, the
National Biological Survey and other programs which had been unquestioned
sacred cows of the environmental movement.

Pombo held field hearings across the country and had over one hundred
citizens testify to expose the scams and failures of the Endangered Species
Act. He did battle with the Clinton Administration and Interior Secretary
Bruce Babbitt on a host of issues, from challenging the authority of United
Nations land use designations to the national Heritage Rivers land grab
proposal.

Pombo has been a consistent voice in support of compensating property
owners when the government proposes to regulate land out of any reasonable
use.
Earlier this year, he stopped the National Heritage Area federal zoning
bill dead in its tracks by insisting that property owners be notified when
they
fall into a proposed heritage area.

Just a few months ago, the Forest Service demanded that long-time cabin
owners take down an American flag is their front yard! The letter
explained that Old Glory's red, white and blue did not fit in with the color
scheme
drawn up by the arrogant, out of touch Forest Service! It was Richard
Pombo who took the bureaucracy to task, and got our flag back up and flying.

Pombo has gained approval from the Resources Committee for two excellent
bills to improve the Endangered Species Act. One would compensate property
owners when the government takes away use of land for allegedly endangered
species, and the other requires that solid scientific data be shown before
a species can be listed.

Pombo currently serves as a senior member of the Resources Committee and as
Chairman of the Western Caucus. He can be counted on to lead the fight on
our most important issues of concern to private property rights and
multiple use of federal lands.

If your congressman is a Republican, tell them that you believe Richard
Pombo is the best person to be Chairman of the Resources Committee, and ask
him or her to support Pombo.

Here is how committee chairman are named:

Since Republicans are in the majority in the House, they name the chairmen
of all committees. Democratic congressmen will have no role in naming
committee chairmen.

Committee chairmanships are decided on by a group called the Republican
Steering Committee, which consists of about twenty senior GOP House
members.

However, Steering Committee decisions must be ratified by the entire
Republican caucus, which consists of all GOP congressmen. So all
Republican members have at least some say over who becomes
chairman of each committee.

The jockeying and politicking, most of it behind the scenes, is beginning
right now - now that the elections have been held. Make your voice heard.

ACTION ITEM:

Is your member of congress a Republican? Then tell him or her to support
Richard Pombo for Resources Committee Chairman!

If you get feedback or can help out in other ways, please contact
pomboforchairman@aol.com.

Crowdog
12-29-2002, 09:06 PM
December 24, 2002

SITUATION: Committee chairmanships in the House of Representatives will be decided on by a group called the Republican Steering Committee, which consists of twenty-eight GOP House members (see list below).

TIME LINE: The Steering Committee will formally meet to vote on committee chairmen on January 9 or 10, 2003. HOWEVER, votes are informally being tallied now, and the lobbying is intense. Most observers predict that Steering Committee members will make up their minds between now and Christmas, with a few stragglers making their decisions between Christmas and New Years. So crunch time is RIGHT NOW.

STATUS: Advocates of private property rights must push for our people to be in leadership positions in this Congress, or else the GOP will support land grabs just as the Democrats frequently do.

The Resources Committee oversees many of the issues most important to private property rights and federal lands, including the Endangered Species Act, energy and mineral exploration, recreational access to federal lands, international environmental treaties, forest health, water rights, national parks and wildlife refuges and the Bureau of Land Management.

Congressman Richard Pombo has announced he is running for the Resources Committee chairmanship. Others are seeking this influential post also, but Pombo is the best of the bunch. Richard Pombo has been our very best advocate in Congress since the day he was sworn in to the House of Representatives ten years ago, and has earned our support in his bid to become chairman.

Within a few weeks after taking office back in 1993, Pombo established the Congressional Task Force on Private Property Rights (a later version of which became the Western Caucus). He then began challenging land acquisition funding, the National Biological Survey and other programs, which had been unquestioned sacred cows of the environmental movement.

Starting in 1995 and every year since, Pombo has held field hearings across the country and had over one hundred citizens testify to expose the scams and failures of the Endangered Species Act. He did battle with the Clinton Administration and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on many issues, from challenging the authority of United Nations land use designations to the National Heritage Rivers land grab proposal.

Pombo has been a consistent voice in support of compensating property owners when the government proposes to regulate land out of any reasonable use. Earlier in 2002, he stopped the National Heritage Area federal zoning bill dead in its tracks by insisting that property owners be notified when they fall into a proposed heritage area.

He has attended the last three international conferences that the animal rights and international enviro outfits use to promote their agenda, called the "CITES" conference. He successfully lobbied for resumption of trade in ivory and hides so that African countries can use their elephants and other animals as resources, and fought against restrictions in trade of well-managed tree harvests, circuses, and hunting.

Pombo has gained approval from the Resources Committee for two excellent bills to improve the Endangered Species Act. One would compensate property owners when the government takes away use of land for allegedly endangered species, and the other requires that solid scientific data be shown before a species can be listed. Pombo currently serves as a senior member of the Resources Committee and as Chairman of the Western Caucus. He can be counted on to lead the fight on our most important issues of concern to private property rights and multiple use of federal lands.

ACTION ITEM:

Listed below are the members of the Republican Steering Committee, who will vote on who will be chairman of the very important Resources Committee. CONTACT THEM and tell them, using the information above and anything else you would like to add, that Richard Pombo should be Chairman! If there are congressmen listed below from your home state, please make an EXTRA EFFORT to email, call and fax them!

Email addresses can be found here:
http://www.americanpolicy.org/prop/main.htm

Denny Hastert, Illinois, (202) 225-2976
Tom DeLay, Texas, (202) 225-5951
Roy Blunt, Missouri, (202) 225-6536
Eric Cantor, Virginia, (202) 225-2815
Deborah Pryce, Ohio, (202) 225-2015
Chris Cox, California, (202) 225-5611
Jack Kingston, Georgia, (202) 225-5831
John Doolittle, California, (202) 225-2511
Tom Reynolds, New York, (202) 225-5265
Tom Davis, Virginia, (202) 225-1492
Bill Young, Florida, (202) 225-5961
Billy Tauzin, Louisiana, (202) 225-4031
David Dreier, California, (202) 225-2305
Bill Thomas, California, (202) 225-2915
Adam Putnam, Florida, (202) 225-1252
Doc Hastings, Washington, (202) 225-5816
John Shaddeg, Arizona, (202) 225-3361
Joe Barton, Texas, (202) 225-2002
Tom Latham, Iowa, (202) 225-5476
Dave Camp, Michigan, (202) 225-3561
John McHugh, New York, (202) 225-4611
Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania, (202) 225-2011
Ralph Regula, Ohio, (202) 225-3876
Hal Rogers, Kentucky, (202) 225-4601
Mac Collins, Georgia, (202) 225-5901
Don Young, Alaska, (202) 225-5765
John Culberson, Texas, (202) 225-2571

Let’s get 2003 off to a great start with a Resources Committee chairman who will listen to us! PLEASE act now!

Mike Hardiman is one of the most knowledgeable and effective lobbyists in Washington, on property rights and resource use issues. He can be reached at hardimanmike@aol.com.

Crowdog
12-30-2002, 10:17 PM
Western Republicans Oppose N.J.'s Saxton

By ROBERT GEHRKE Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time in a quarter century, the House
committee in charge of hundreds of millions of acres of Western land
could be led by an Easterner, which is worrying some Western
Republicans and causing a revolt among others.

New Jersey Rep. Jim Saxton, with more seniority than any other
Republican on the House Resources Committee, is first in line for the
job when the new Congress convenes next month.

But Western representatives complain that Saxton, an Easterner with a
moderate voting record on environmental issues, doesn't understand
how grazing, mineral and land management decisions made by the
committee shape the West's wide-open expanses.

Now, some Westerners are pushing House leaders to skip Saxton for
less-tenured committee members, such as Rep. Elton Gallegly,
R-Calif., or Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn. One relative newcomer, Rep.
Richard Pombo, a conservative rancher from California, is
aggressively campaigning for the job.

"Jim's a good friend and a great guy, but he doesn't live in the West
and may not understand some of the issues," said Rep. Chris Cannon,
R-Utah.

The last Resources Committee chairman from east of the Mississippi
River was Rep. James Haley, D-Fla., who held the post from 1973 to
1977.

The committee has jurisdiction over 700 million acres of America's
public lands. It oversees national parks and forests, regulates
energy development on federal land, manages U.S. rivers, waterways
and fisheries, and supervises issues relating to American Indians and
U.S. territories.

Saxton, first elected to the House in 1985, was chairman of the
committee's fisheries subcommittee from 1994 to 2000. His spokesman,
Jeff Sagnip, said his boss has always been fair to Western members
and has made clear to House leaders that he wants a chance to lead
the panel.

His opponents have two knocks against Saxton: where he's from and how he votes.

His New Jersey district has hardly any public land that falls under
the committee's jurisdiction. In comparison, 80 percent of Nevada,
two-thirds of Utah and more than 60 percent of Idaho are under
federal control.

And Saxton frequently has voted with the environmental community,
most notably as one of 16 Republicans who opposed the House energy
bill that included oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. He also voted to strip the refuge drilling authority from the
bill.

The League of Conservation Voters said Saxton cast environmentally
friendly votes on 59 percent of the key issues in the 107th Congress,
compared with 18 percent for Gallegly and Duncan and 9 percent for
Pombo.

Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, the retiring current chairman, voted with
environmentalists in 5 percent of key votes. By comparison, the
senior Democrat on the panel, Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia,
sided with environmentalists on 86 percent of key votes.

"It would be a delightful surprise if Jim Saxton were to become
chairman of that committee," said Dave Alberswerth, public lands
specialist for the Wilderness Society. "But it's pretty clear the
Western Republican members of that committee wouldn't ever allow that
to happen. He's too green."

Ranking below Saxton in seniority are Gallegly and Duncan, who both
have voting records that are more palatable to Western conservatives.

Gallegly has the benefit of being a Westerner, but Duncan has been
more active on the committee and has won the support of several of
the panel's Westerners. His Tennessee district includes the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park and Cherokee National Forest, so he has
some familiarity with public lands issues.

"Duncan has a very good grasp of the public land issues," said Clark
Collins, executive director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an
Idaho-based group backing public access to federal lands. "There is
somebody in our view would likely be a very good choice because he
might be able to relate better to some of the other Eastern
legislators who don't understand the issues so well."

Pombo has been one of the most vocal advocates on Western land
issues, and as chairman of the Western caucus has won considerable
backing from the region. But if leadership dips into the less-senior
members, it could open up a free-for-all, with other members,
including Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., and
Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., jumping into the fray.