Federal Appropriations: Paying it Forward

One of the reasons that I love going to DC is that the implications of a week there just keep shaking out.  It usually takes about a month before everything is resolved and we know what our course is.

This year, like last year, we have been working to get our delegation signed on to a letter to the Interior Appropriations Committee.  In 2007, our letter focused on storm damage, since we were all still reeling from the huge November and December 2006 weather hits.  That letter became an appropriations request, which helped convince the Committee that funding storm damage repair at Mount Rainier was critically important.

This year, although heavy storms wreacked havoc on the Olympics, we decided to pull back the lens and deal with larger structural issues in the Forest Service budget.  The administration's FY 09 budget contains a 16% cut in forest service programs, and in response, we are working with Congressmen Inslee, Baird and Larsen to get a request letter into the Interior Appropriations Committee asking them to turn back the cuts and add 5% to the overall forest service budget.  That letter should be sent to the Committee this week.

Although not enough to correct decades of neglect, enacting this increase in the next iteration of the budget will be a start toward putting the forest service on a sustainable budget footing.  We're fortunate to have the Chair of the Interior Appropriations Committee--Congressman Dicks--in our delegation, and to have a member of the Senate Leadership who is also on the Appropriations Committee in Senator Murray.  That's one of the reasons that we've had success in recovering Mount Rainier, and why we're urging our delegation to turn their attention to national forest system needs.

We'll keep heading back to DC to work with our delegation for as long as it takes.  You can help by contacting your Member of Congress and Senators and letting them know how much we appreciate their work to fund and preserve our national forest trails and wildlands.  You can find them here.