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.