URGENT: OPPOSE AMENDMENTS TO LACEY ACT IN HOUSE COMPETES ACT HR4521
Hi Everyone,
It was enheartening to see such a great turnout for our March meeting. It's official: we're back!
As promised, here is the information you need to write to your state senators asking them to remove the Lacey Act Amendments from the COMPETES Act before it goes to a vote in the US Senate. The club is not expressing an opinion about the COMPETES Act itself. Each member's political opinions are their own private business. The club's position is limited to the Lacey Act Amendments which would greatly alter the aquarium hobby and severely curtail fish club's ability to hold auctions or any other activity where wet pets are bought or sold.
PIJAC (Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council) is a great place to get up-to-date, accurate information about the Lacey Act Amendments and how their passage will affect the pet industry as a whole. If you're a subscriber to Amazonas magazine, you've been getting regular updates from the editorial staff.
The Lacey Act Amendments would:
Prevent interstate transport of species listed as injurious
Create a whitelist of approved species that can be imported, where any animal not listed is treated as an injurious species by default and banned from importation into the U.S.
No species of fish could be imported unless it were demonstrated to not be injurious in any state in the continental US. Yes, that means from Florida to Minnesota.
How can you take action right now? PIJAC has made it incredibly easy and fast. Go to the PIJAC website. Go to Legislative Action Center under Government Affairs. Click the Take Action button which will take you here: Send a Message (cqrcengage.com)
The link takes you to an easy online form to fill out with your name, address, email, and phone number (required by the offices of the state senators). Click the submit button. Another window will pop up with your State Senator's names. In MD, I was given an opportunity to write a brief note to my senators. Then I clicked submit. It took me no more than 5 minutes.
If you love your fish and shrimp, if you love this hobby, if you love your fish club, then you will take the 5 minutes required to let your state senators know that you do not support the Lacey Act Amendments impacting the pet industry.
Thank you for your attention, Patchin
Folks,
If there are really only 3 of us in the club willing to write to our Senators, I will be mighty disappointed. This is no joke. Amazonas Magazine has dedicated 5 full pages to this topic in its latest May/June issue. The full text of the Lacey Act amendment, Section 71102 of the COMPETES Act, is on page 8 of the issue.
The House has passed the COMPETES Act. The Senate companion bill (US Innovation and Competition Act) does not contain language which would destroy the aquarium hobby. Next steps are for a House and Senate joint committee to merge the house and senate bills which would then be voted on again in both chambers.
We have to prevent the Lacey Act Amendments language from making it into the final bill. The time is now, not next week or next month, but now, to take action. It is my sincere hope that every single PVAS member will follow the link I provided above to the PIJAC web site and take the 5 minutes necessary to fill out the form.
If the bill passes with the Lacey Act Amendment language in it, there will be no more all-day auctions, no more monthly mini-auctions, no more local fish stores, no more AquaBid, no more Wet Spot, no more Aqueon or Fluval, and eventually no more fish clubs because there will be no more hobby.
No kidding, for real.
Submitted and shared!
I was as easy as Patchin said it was.
Here is a copy of the open letter written jointly by a large number of industry groups including PIJAC, ARK, National Aquaculture Association and many others.
THE FACTS ABOUT THE LACEY ACT AMENDMENTS IN THE COMPETES ACT OF 2022 (H.R.4521)
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2022
POSTED BY
PIJACADMIN
There has been considerable conversation, and unfortunately also some incorrect interpretations, over the past days concerning amendments to the Lacey Act that are included in the COMPETES Act of 2022, and we want to set the record straight. The fact is that these amendments are still included in the legislation that will be considered by the Senate, they were not removed prior to H.R. 4521 passing in the House. And the more important fact is that these amendments pose a significant threat to everyone who owns, breeds, raises, transports, sells, or provides products and services to care for all animals other than cats and dogs.
What we do know is that these amendments would: authorize the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent interstate transport of species listed as injurious; create a white list of import-approved species and importation of any animal not listed would banned by default; and enable the Secretary of the Interior to use an "emergency declaration" to prohibit importation of a species suspected to be injurious to humans, agriculture, horticulture, forestry, wildlife, or wildlife resources for up to three years with no public or Congressional input.
What this means is that importing or transporting certain animals across state lines would immediately become unlawful, should those species not have cleared the complex and lengthy process of being deemed “not injurious”. And at any time, a species could be banned on short notice for years via a variety of factors that cause it to be considered injurious. This would trigger a domino effect across the live animal economy, devastating not only those businesses and farms that sell those species, but also manufacturers, distributors and retailers who produce and sell products to grow or care for them.
The COMPETES Act is now in the Senate after passing the House on February 4, 2022. What we do not yet know is whether the Senate will take up the House bill for consideration or opt to reconcile it with their own bill that passed this past summer, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) (S. 1260).
Our call to action is this: Please watch closely for communication from the organizations that have signed this letter and monitor their websites. When the time comes to act there will be a very short period during which we can effectively counter this effort.
Sincerely,