Explaining the BLM FY2023 Budget Bill
What happened this past week with the proposed budget for BLM's Wild Horse & Burro Program? Are there significant changes this year?
This week the House subcommittee passed the FY2023 budget out of subcommittee to the full committee.
So what exactly has happened? Are things different or the same? Let's take a look at the language and see what is the same, or different. And what the next steps are.
The bill nows to go to the full committee in the House, and then on to the Senate to repeat the process. Once those are done it goes into a Conference Committee to iron out any differences in the 2 versions. Then final votes are taken before being signed into law. You can read more on this process on the White House website.
There is no change in the bidget this year from last year othere than some minor wording that doesn't change anything significant. You can view side-by-side text of the bill. The left side is the 2023 and the right is 2022 with the differences highlighted.
You can compare bills yourself by looking them up on the House subcommittee website. (Chart provided by Advocates for Wild Equine, AWE, citizen lobby coalition). The left is 2023 and the right is 2022.
There is no change in the bill for this year that will make things better, or worse, for our wild equines. This bill is more of the same. We will continue to see our horses rounded up to achiee the AML BLM claims is the national goal. A goal that is based on a lie that there was a national population of 25,000 horses in 1971. We know that was a lie from 2 unearthed BLM publications so far. One from 1972, an EIS for grazing, that states there were roughly 71,200 wild horses and burros. ^3 thousand horses. And the other is an entry made in the federal register in 1986 that said non population census was done in 1971 and that any population was speculation. That same entry by BLM states that in 1973 there was 60,000 wild equines.
BLM manages now for just 27,000 wild horses and burros. The BLM is clearly lying to Congress and the American public about why it has set a goal for 27,000 wild horses. But if they complete their scheduled gathers this year, 2022 we will be at or possibly below the number of horses that were really on the range in 1971. Remember that in 1971 the Congress was so alarmed by a "fast disappearing" species that they unanimously passed a law to protect them. Why would BLM want to drop below the real number that was out there then? WHY is Congress ignoring us, you and the rest of the public begging them to hear us? Why are they allowing this agency to destroy our wild horses?
We need to be the constant noise. We have to be loud, and demand an investigation. Demand that all gathers be stopped until BLM is investigated and the wild horse and burro program needs to be handed over to someone with no conflict of interest. We want the lands abck that were not only zeroed out, but also those that were sold or traded. Congress must recognize that getting rid of lands that were designated for the purpose of managing wild horses/burros, was illegal and those lands must be returned to the program even if through eminent domain. We cannot put horses where they were not in 1971 per the law, and if Congress doesn't want to change that then at least give them back their stolen lands.
You can read more about the land left and population lies in ourlegal opinion "Relabeling of Acreage Created the Overpopulation Myth of Wild Horses & Burros"
Please let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. And feel free to join us on Fridays on Zoom at 3 p.m. PDT for chats on various topics surrounding our wild horses and burros. You can find those meeting announcements on our Facebook page, Twitter page (links below) or send us an email and ask to be put on the list for the weekly meeting invite which includes the topic to be discussed. (We do not use you email for solicitations, or share it with anyone, and it is kept private even from others who wish to be on this specific mailing list.