I just looked up the voting rolls for this one... it was passed in the house by the REPUBLICAN HOUSE, it's sad that many of you on here just view Dems as gun hating take your rights away folks... turns out they are wanting to keep our air clean, wildlife strong, and protect our enviroment. I have been sickened by the Clean Coal advertisements on DC area radio, along with the Dispurse the EPA calls it's horrible. I dont know about you but all the tea baggers better wake up and see what they started, and live with how it is going to end. Enjoy this years hunting/fishing it may be the last good year period.

We've been so completely focused on gun rights for so long that I think we've forgotten that having a gun for many of us is pointless if there's nothing and nowhere to shoot. Let's get some more emphasis on the conservation side.

We have added 4 trillion dollars to the National Debt in the last 2 years, with another 1.8 trillion on the way according to Obama's budget for 2012. Obama wants to give Brazil 2 billion to drill for their oil in deep water offshore. Obama wants 53 billion for high speed rail. Personally I only spend money on things I can afford. We are borrowing 42 cents of every dollar the Federal Government spends. We are paying GE to sell us windmills that don't produce power at an affordable price but do chew up eagles and geese and anything else that gets in their way. The government is broken and individuals, not non governmental organizations lobbying for their own share of the pie like DU are going to have to take up the slack. Non Constitutionally authorized spending is indeed the low hanging fruit. What is .5% of 3.8 trillion dollars? My calculator doesn't have room for that many zeros.
We are a country that has more government workers than manufacturing workers. Twice as many people work for the government than work manufacturing things. I used to go to Natural Resources Conservation Service meetings. There would be 60 odd people at the meeting and I was the only one not being paid to be there. I was the only one not driving a government car, using government paid for gas, getting a government retirement program. It cost me money to go to the meeting. They all got paid to spend other peoples money. The quality of the North American environment is not dependent on the amount of money spent by the Dept of the Interior, or the Dept of Energy, or the EPA, or the Agriculture Dept. They just want you to think that it does. That's their rice bowl.

Just contacted BOTH of my Senators. Took 10 minutes tops, just Google "Senator" and your state, and thier pages pop right up. I think it's worth the time. Thank you Hal for helping bring attention to this load of crap. The Tea Party should change it's name to the "RE-TARDY"

Stand up now Sportsman! Contact your representatives................Thanks Hal

How about we take all the CEO's salaries (some exceeding 450 million for the year) that were bailed out by TARP and use those funds for conservation.

"It is about representatives who may be well-meaning, but are ignorant of the very basics of conservation and how it affects our economy, our quality of life, and our access to basic resources like clean water, not to mention fish to catch and wild game to hunt"

Exactly the problem. We have been electing a long list of idiots for quite some time.

There are no more statesmen (statespersons, i guess). Just politicians. They aren't there for what's best, they they don't even know what's best.

This is disturbing on many levels obviously. However, recently I think what is most troubling is the number of attempts by federal and state government to confiscate money from existing programs, in many cases self-funded, to be diverted toward other programs deemed necessary for the "the public good." In the end, we discover that the money winds up being directed by ill informed bureaucrats for programs supported by lobbyists and special interests tugging at a politicians nose ring. What I find most disturbing about these tactics is how low under the public radar these shenanigans fly.

Just in the past month, my state narrowly avoided an attempt by state government to raid license fees accumulated from fishing and hunting licenses to be used toward non-sportsmen interested water storage projects. The usage would have benefited agriculture and public water use (code for corporate interests and lawn watering).

Tax me? Sure. Take the money I've allocated from my meager personal budget which I've chosen to spend in support of wildlife, habitat, conservation, and use it elsewhere? That's double taxation and cannot be allowed to continue.

It is deeply troubling that the public media has elected to crawl in bed with politics. It is shameful that mass media has abandoned their principles, electing instead to take a position.

yup. they argue over a $30 billion disagreement of what to cut. that's out of a $3.5 TRILLION budget. The things they appear to have no problem cutting: education of our youth and conservation related things, that for example, could do the most damage to our world ironically, but one could argue are the most important to save. short-sighted, ignorant, and done for political points. There's the political ruling class and then the rest of us. It's not about be Republican or Democrat.

Some drastic changes are needed to curb the vast amount of excess Federal spending. The Dems obviously have squandered their two year chance to get our fiscal house in order. Someone had to present a plan and of course it will not suit everyone.

If Federal taxes were lower we would have more personal money to donate to conservation. As it is now, we are taxed into poverty. Granted, some of these programs are national but many are locally based and should be up to statewide funding votes. It is not right for the Federal government to take our hard earned money and spend beyond our means. Those of you complaining are like all the other pigs at the trough. You're willing to cut your neighbor out just as long as you still get to eat.

Why is it that everyone seems to have forgotten how we got into this fiscal mess? We've spent over one trillion dollars in Iraq, add to that Afghanistan, and then the melt down of the financial markets. I remain convinced that the TARP package, however distasteful, was absolutely necessary top avoid a complete collapse of the banking system. Although most of the TARP money has now been paid back, Federal revenue was crushed by the worst recession since the Great Depression. This is more than a spending problem.

In a seemingly knee-jerk reaction, we now find ourselves in a situation where the current Congressional leadership is willing to completely eliminate funding for conservation programs under the guise fiscal responsibility in an effort make short-term political gains. My biggest fear is that the modern Conservation movement which began 75 years ago may now be dying because we have now let ourselves become fragmented and redefined as either Sportsmen or Environmentalists.

we are always the first on the chopping block.

I was raised in a Democratic family but we had a family round table talk in November 2008 & we all agreed this man wasn't patriotic & would possibly be a dictator rather than a leader so we voted accordingly. Now looks like we were dead right & the word Communist comes to mind when examining his ideas!

I saw a very interesting show last night (A show well worth watching), Saving The Bay on PBS and was narrated by Robert Redford.
It shows how three women in 1961 helped save the bays wetlands. Mrs. Kerr and her friends, Sylvia McLaughlin and Esther Gulick, founded Save the Bay in 1961. It was the first organization devoted exclusively to protecting San Francisco Bay.

Among its greatest victories was helping start the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the first coastal protection agency in the country.

The group also fought successfully for a moratorium on landfill in the bay and helped establish the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest urban refuges in the country.

http://www.savingthebay.org/

http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-01-03/bay-area/26355726_1_esther-gulick-...