The following alert was shared with American Whitewater by the Western Slope No Fee Coalition.

HOUSE RESOURCES COMMITTEE PREPARING PERMANENT FEE BILL FOR COMMITTEE VOTE!!

Action Alert

INFO

For the last two months the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition has been negotiating with the House Resource Committee to try to limit the scope of Regula’s permanent Fee Demo bill HR 3283. Although those talks are ongoing it is becoming clear that those efforts have failed. With 72 hours until the Committee votes on the amendment, wording will still include Basic or Standard Recreation Fees for use of our public land, an “America The Beautiful” National Pass for all agencies, agency appointed Advisory Committees to rubber stamp fee areas, and all the incentives for the land management agencies to treat you as a customer.

The 42-page revised version (by way of an amendment) of Rep. Regula’s HR 3283, the permanent recreation fee bill, is headed for markup on Wednesday September 22nd.  Markup is where the full House Resources Committee votes on sending it on to the House floor for a vote.  They may send it on as it is written, they may amend it, or they (hopefully) may reject it altogether.

Indications are that the 24 minority Democrat Committee members may oppose the HR 3283 amendment- but there are 28 majority Republican Committee members, of whom many might support the new version of HR 3283.  (The amendment language is still not available on the internet.)

Our job is to encourage the majority Republican Committee members to vote against this fee bill.

Below are phone and fax numbers for the 28 Republican Committee members, followed by the contact info for 4 key Committee Democrats.

Please, please, please – do all you can to call and/or fax these legislators between now and Wednesday morning.  This action alert, which will go far and wide, is the ONLY opportunity to register your disapproval of this permanent recreation fee legislation for America‘s public lands.  We don’t have an army of lobbyists, but we do have you and thousands like you.  We’ve made a difference before and we can do it again.  After seven years of fighting Fee Demo, this is THE decisive week.

If the HR 3283 amendment passes as written, fees will be levied on most of America‘s public lands for the indefinite future; there’ll be multiple layers of fees for everything from rustic campsites to site specific areas, and expanded fees for additional “services.”

WHAT TO SAY AND FAX:
Please ask, briefly, each legislator to oppose any amendment to HR 3283 that still has Basic or Standard fees, a National Pass for public lands and a Fee Advisory Committee at markup, and to support S.1107 (the Senate bill which passed this year, making ONLY Park Service fees permanent and allowing the others to lapse).

It’s a pretty simple message and, believe it or not, 32 phone calls to the list below can take as little as 20 minutes of your time Monday or Tuesday.

WHO TO CONTACT:
Please call/fax ALL the 28 Republican House Resources Committee members below.  If your time is limited, make sure to contact Committee chair Pombo and legislators from your home state, at least.  (If you can only call a few, please pick them at random so those at the top of the list don’t get more calls than those lower down.)  Below that, are listed 4 key Democrat Committee members, including minority chair Rahall (who supports us strongly); please contact all of these if you can.

Remember that faxes will go through more easily AFTER office hours in DC!

If all of us manage to make calls and send faxes, we believe it WILL be possible to stop HR 3283!  Thank you for your continuing efforts to help stop Fee Demo.

WE CAN NOW FAX TO DC FOR YOU, TO ALL THESE LEGISLATORS!  If you have no easy access to a fax machine, please prepare your letter, addressed to “Dear Representative,” and go to www.aznofee.org .  Starting Sunday afternoon, you will be able to go their website and send a FAX directly to all the legislators below.  (Our thanks to the Arizona No Fee Coalition.)

ALL NUMBERS BELOW, AREA CODE (202)
House Resources Committee – Republican Members

CHAIR Pombo, Richard – CA       Ph: 225-2761 or 225-1947

                        Fax: 225-5929

Bishop, Rob – UT        Ph: 225-0453
            Fax: 225-5857

Calvert, Ken – CA  Ph: 225-1986   
                Fax: 225-2004

Cannon, Chris – UT Ph: 225- 7751
           Fax: 225-5629

Cole, Tom – OK     Ph: 225-6165
            Fax: 225-3512

Cubin, Barbara – WY        Ph: 225-2311
            Fax: 225-3057

Duncan, Jr., John  – TN    Ph: 225-5435
            Fax: 225-6440

Flake, Jeff – AZ   Ph: 225-2635
            Fax: 226-4386

Gallegly, Elton – CA    Ph: 225-5811
            Fax: 225-1100

Gibbons, Jim – NV  Ph: 225-6155
            Fax: 225-5679

Gilchrest, Wayne – MD   Ph: 225-5311
               Fax: 225-0254

Hayworth, J.D. – AZ            Ph: 225-2190
                Fax: 225-3263

Jones, Walter – NC   Ph: 225-3415
          Fax: 225-3286

McInnis, Scott – CO            Ph: 225-4761
                Fax: 226-0622

Nunes, Devin – CA  Ph: 225-2523
            Fax: 225-3404

Osborne, Tom – NE  Ph: 225-6435
            Fax: 226-1385

Pearce, Stevan – NM            Ph: 225-2365
                Fax: 225-9599

Peterson, John – PA            Ph: 225-5121
                Fax: 225-5796

Putnam, Adam – FL  Ph: 225-1252
            Fax: 226-0585

Radanovich, George – CA    Ph: 225-4540
            Fax: 225-3402

Rehberg, Dennis – MT    Ph: 225-3211
               Fax: 225-5687

Renzi, Rick – AZ   Ph: 225-2315
            Fax: 226-9739

Saxton, Jim – NJ   Ph: 225-4765
            Fax: 225-0778

Souder, Mark – IN  Ph: 225-4436
            Fax: 225-3479

Tancredo, Thomas – CO    Ph: 225-7882
              Fax: 226-4623

Tauzin, W.J. (Billy) – LA    Ph: 225-4031
          Fax: 225-0563

Walden, Greg – OR  Ph: 225-6730
            Fax: 225-5774

Young, Don – AK    Ph: 225-5765
            Fax: 225-0425


House Resources Committee – Key Democrat Members

CHAIR Rahall,  Nick – WV   Ph: 225-3452 or 225-6065
                        Fax: 225-9061 or

Baca, Joe – CA  Ph: 225-6161
            Fax: 225-8671

Cardoza, Dennis – CA    Ph: 225-6131
               Fax: 225-0819

Udall, Mark – CO   Ph: 225-2161
            Fax: 226-7840


Thank you for your help in the Fee Demo fight. 

Robert Funkhouser, President

WESTERN SLOPE NO-FEE COALITION