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Cedric Richmond on Environment |
The Army Corps of Engineers maintains the Mississippi River`s depth at 45 feet by removing sediment build-up, through a process known as dredging, to ensure waterways are deep enough for cargo ships to operate. The Corps needs augmented funding to keep pace with severe weather and new global standards, which come from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. This fund contains $6 Billion in shippers' tax money set aside for this very purpose. Shutting down the River to commerce, through draft restrictions, is the consequence of failing to dredge.
112th Mid-Term Humane Scorecard: The Humane Society Legislative Fund has posted the final version of the 2011 Humane Scorecard, where you can track the performance of your federal lawmakers on key animal protection issues during last year. We rated legislators based on their voting behavior on measures such as agribusiness subsidies, lethal predator control, and the Endangered Species Act; their cosponsorship of priority bills on puppy mills, horse slaughter, animal fighting, and chimps in research; their support for funding the enforcement of animal welfare laws; and their leadership on animal protection. All of the priority bills whose cosponsorships we're counting enjoy strong bipartisan support; in the House, each of the four now has more than 150 cosponsors.
The Humane Scorecard is not a perfect measuring tool, but creating some reasonable yardstick and allowing citizens to hold lawmakers accountable is central to our work. When the Humane Scorecard comes out each year, it helps clarify how the animal protection movement is doing geographically, by party affiliation, and in other categories. It helps us chart our course for animals by seeing where we have been effective, and where we need to improve.