As your constituent, I urge you to reject increasing the budget for the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse and burro program. In addition, I urge you to join the House in cutting the budget by $2 million to "send a very strong message" about the need for reform this costly and cruel federal program.
The BLM has stated that it will use the increased funding to roundup and remove nearly 5,000 additional mustangs and burros from our public lands by the end the year, after already removing nearly 6,000 wild horses since the fiscal year began in October 2010.
We already have over 42,000 wild horses held captive in holding facilities that will cost taxpayers $46 million this year alone.
Although the BLM is talking about making changes to this program, without pressure from Congress, it will continue to do business as usual. That has been the history of this program. While we have a moral obligation to care for the wild horses already in captivity, we cannot allow this agency to deepen its fiscal black hole by bringing more and more mustangs into taxpayer-funded holding facilities.
As Congress considers drastic spending cuts, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to this broken federal program that is wasting tax dollars and harming our federally-protected wild horses and burros.
Thank you for your consideration.
