Status of Federal Spending Package

Congress is working through the weekend with a goal of filing a legislative package to finance federal spending on Monday, Dec. 12, go to the rules committee on Tuesday and to the House floor for action on Wednesday of next week.

It will become clear next week which appropriations bills will be included in an omnibus bill and which bills, because of controversy, will be presented as Continuing Resolutions (CR). Any appropriations bill sent through as a CR will work with same amount of dollars as allocated last year.

"The American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) supports including the Interior Appropriations bill in the omnibus package with the inclusion of the provision addressing domestic sheep grazing and wild sheep," stated Margaret Soulen Hinson, ASI president and producer from Idaho.

On a related note, over 150 sheep producers have contributed nearly $30,000 in the first weeks of a nationwide solicitation to fund resolution to the wild sheep issue. The fund, set up by the ASI executive board this fall, is critical to finance vaccine research and defense of grazing for our sheep. Twenty-three percent of the entire U.S. lamb and wool production is directly threatened by litigation from anti-livestock organizations using the wild sheep topic to put sheep producers out of business.

"A majority of the infrastructure of the sheep business in America, including lamb and wool companies, would be lost if this issue is allowed to continue," Soulen Hinson concluded. Those interested in contributing to this drive can contact the ASI office or email through www.sheepusa.org