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When Congress handed six funding payments final week to avert a partial authorities shutdown, the outcome introduced a blended bag for a lot of hen conservation applications that shield our surroundings and wildlife. Some provisions of the fiscal 12 months FY24 omnibus bundle have been disappointing, just like the Migratory Chook Administration program, which was granted solely 57 % of the funding requested by President Biden. Protections for the Higher Mississippi River, watershed administration and aquatic ecosystems would nonetheless see stagnant funding.
Limitations like this have been proposed for years, partly due to price range caps set in place by the Fiscal Accountability Act of 2023. Conservation’s crown jewels, like our Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System and different applications, are reeling from years of inadequate funding and staffing crises; extra funding cuts in FY24 will cripple a number of the most necessary instruments we’ve got to guard our surroundings and the wildlife that reside in it.
On the optimistic aspect, Audubon was happy to see that the ultimate laws excluded lots of the harmful anti-wildlife and anti-environment coverage “riders” launched this previous 12 months. These amendments search to undermine landmark laws just like the Endangered Species Act. We encourage Congress to maintain the door shut to dangerous coverage riders within the FY25 appropriations course of.
We’re in a essential second for birds and other people. The twin crises of local weather change and biodiversity loss are a number of the defining challenges of our time. As Congress begins the appropriations course of for FY25, nonetheless below the shadow of the Fiscal Accountability Act, Audubon is dedicated to defending hen conservation applications and environmental funding from drastic cuts.
Though the FY24 funding bundle doesn’t mirror the funding wanted to totally shield wildlife and the atmosphere, Congress can nonetheless play a task in conserving birds and their habitats by passing laws like the Migratory Birds of the Americas Enhancement Act and the Strengthening Coastal Communities Act.
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