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Advocates Alert 2/29/2008: Crunch Time on Conservation Tax Incentive in the Farm Bill

The Farm Bill is our best opportunity to renew the tax incentive for conservation easement donations and make it permanent. Our success on this issue may be decided in the next two weeks. Your hard work has added eight new cosponsors to HR 1576 and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) continues to push for these provisions in the Farm Bill, but we need to convince key leaders in the House to make this happen.

Get Your Representative to Weigh in Personally with Leadership 

At this point, it will take a personal call from your Representative to key leaders of the House to make a difference on the Farm Bill. Just a few calls into the right people at this critical moment could literally change the history of conservation! Please think about who on your board or in your community can best reach your Representative directly and ask them to make such a call.

Ask Democrats to call:

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) or her Chief of Staff, John Lawrence
• House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

Ask Republicans to call:

• House Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Jim McCrery (R-LA) 
• House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)

Messages we need your Representative to convey:

• The Tax Incentive for Conservation Easements that Senator Baucus is trying to get into the Farm Bill is very important to landowners and conservationists in my district.
• It is extremely important to get this done in the Farm Bill

See background, frequently asked questions, and resources on the tax incentive.

Eight New Cosponsors for HR 1576; 160 Total

Over the past two weeks the following representatives have cosponsored HR 1576: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN), Rep Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT). That means we now have 160 Members, more than a third of the House, on record supporting a permanent extension of the tax incentive for conservation easement donations!

Please check out our complete list of cosponsors! If your Representative isn't yet on the list, please call and urge them to cosponsor HR 1576. If your Representative is already a cosponsor, please urge them to weigh in with leadership (see above) and thank them publicly or privately using the templates on our tax incentive webpage.

Thank you for helping!

Russ Shay                               Lynne Sherrod                           Sean Robertson
Director of Public Policy          Western Policy Manager            Public Policy Specialist 
Land Trust Alliance                 Land Trust Alliance                     Land Trust Alliance
rshay@lta.org                         lsherrod@lta.org                         srobertson@lta.org  
202-638-4725 x305                  970-245-0439                            202-638-4725 x319

Sign up to be a Land Trust ADVOCATE at: http://www.lta.org/publicpolicy/advocates.htm
Land Trust Alliance ~ 1660 L St. NW, Suite 1100 ~ Washington DC, 20036 ~ (202) 638-4725