Advocates Alert 2/15/2008: 65 Representatives Sign Letter Supporting Conservation Tax Incentive in the Farm Bill

THANK YOU for urging your Representatives to sign the letter supporting the conservation tax incentive in the Farm Bill! Your hard work paid off with a remarkable 65 signatures gathered in less than a week!

Thank Your Representative If They Signed The Letter!
On February 14, 2008, Congressmen Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jim Gerlach (R-PA) and Joe Pitts (R-PA) and 62 other Members of the House sent a letter to the House Agriculture Committee urging a permanent extension of the tax incentive for conservation easements in the Farm Bill. Click here for a copy of the letter.

If your Member of Congress appears on the list below, please call and thank them for their support. If they’re listed in red, that means that even though they supported the tax incentive in this letter, they haven’t yet signed on as cosponsors of H.R. 1576, a bill to do exactly what they supported in the letter!   Please ask them to cosponsor HR 1576 too – building that list of cosponsors also helps us demonstrate support for the tax incentive!!

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL)	Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-MA)	Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH)
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA)	Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-MD)	Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK)
Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-CA)	Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)	Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Rep. Michael M. Honda (D-CA)	Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME)	Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA)
Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA)	Rep. Michael H. Michaud (D-ME)	Rep. Patrick J. Murphy (D-PA)
Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA)	Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)	Rep. Chris Carney (D-PA)
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)	Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC)	Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA)
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)	Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)	Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA)
Rep. John T. Salazar (D-CO)	Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH)	Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA)
Rep. John Larson (D-CT)	Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)	Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA)
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT)	Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ)	Rep. Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)	Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ)	Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)
Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT)	Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)	Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)
Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT)	Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY)	Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA)	Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY)	Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA)	Rep. Peter King (R-NY)	Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA)
Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA)	Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY)	Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT)
Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)	Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY)	Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN)	Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-NY)	Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI)
Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS)	Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-NY)	Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI)
Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY)	Rep. John Hall (D-NY)	Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY)
Rep. John Olver (D-MA)	Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)

Support the Conservation Programs in the Farm Bill
Your continued support over the next two weeks will be critical to securing the tax incentive and in getting funding increases for critical conservation programs in the Farm Bill! The Senate’s Farm Bill includes a permanent extension of the conservation tax incentive.
Negotiations between the House, the Senate and the President are already underway, so every bit of extra support for making the conservation easement incentive permanent will help. Here are some easy ways you can help:

• TODAY:  Check our list to see if your Representative has cosponsored H.R. 1576, the stand-alone bill to make the easement incentive permanent!  If not, please ask them to do so by calling Elizabeth Thomas in the office of Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA).  If they HAVE cosponsored, thank them – and ask them to please call Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) or Ranking Member Jim McCrery (R-LA) of the House Ways & Means Committee and ask them to help ensure that the provisions in the Senate’s Farm Bill that are identical to H.R. 1576 are included in the final Farm Bill.
  
  
• NEXT WEEK is a Congressional recess, so it’s a great opportunity to meet your Members of Congress close to home! Visit their websites at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov to find the phone number for the district office closest to you. You can request an in-district meeting or find out if they’ll be at public events where you can meet them. If you can’t get to meet with your Representative, be sure to ask their staff to support the same $5 billion in increased funding for conservation programs as was in the bill the House passed last summer. This includes the House’s higher funding for the Farm and Ranch Protection Program and the Grasslands Reserve Program, both of which give grants to land trusts and states to purchase conservation easements on working farm and ranch land.

Need help?  Want to do even more?  E-mail policy@lta.org.

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

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