Comm. Outreach Archives: The Good, the Bad & the Farm Bureau: 2007-03-21

Please Note: Information in this archived article may no longer be accurate.

House Agriculture has just been changed to 9 am. Still in Room 138. Please meet at 8:45 am. The meeting is a short one, so there is a chance they will not get to SB 777 on the Agenda -- just an advance warning. See you in the morning. - Eva

(Reprinted by permission of Eva Madison, Humane Society of the Ozarks, Fayetteville)

Subject: The Good, the Bad, and the Farm Bureau

THE GOOD: As you all know, SB 777 had another great victory yesterday – it passed the Senate 21-5. You can see the vote HERE. (If you're curious where the rest of the 35 Senate votes are, they didn't vote. Some may have been outside the Chamber during the vote; some just chose not to vote, which is essentially like voting no.) You may be frustrated with those who did not support the bill, but please remember to focus on the positive. Let’s be grateful for the votes we got, and move on. Plus, some of those “no” votes may turn out to be our allies on other issues (keep reading).

THE BAD: And, as you all know, the battle for felony cruelty legislation is never an easy one in Arkansas – SB 777 has been assigned to the House Agriculture Committee, which is completely illogical. What is most frustrating about this assignment is that the bill wasn’t initially assigned there – it was assigned to House Judiciary. I saw it with my own two eyes on the Legislature’s website before it was updated 20 minutes later. Obviously, there were some gremlins at work in the Capitol today to cause this abrupt switch in committee assignment, but it appears the assignment to House Agriculture is the one that is going to stick. This is definitely disappointing news for SB 777 because House Agriculture will be a BIG challenge for us and will require all of us to work even harder than we did in the Senate.

THE FARM BUREAU: HB 2788 (the FB’s bill) also passed the House today 57-26. You can see the vote HERE. This one is a little harder to figure out. Someone might have voted against it because they knew it was a bad bill, or they might have voted against it because they will never support an animal cruelty bill. Someone might have voted for it because they support it and not SB 777, or they might have voted for it because they weren’t familiar with how bad it is and they thought they were supporting an animal cruelty bill. The good news is that it’s been assigned to Senate Judiciary, where SB 777 had great support, so we will try to defeat it there.

FULL-COURT PRESS: We will have to work even harder in the House, so start telling your friends, family members, and co-workers – heck, tell the person in line behind you at Wal-Mart – to email their House member.

Go HERE to find your Rep. Find email addresses HERE or call the House switchboard at 501-682-6211. Also, contact members of the House Agriculture Committee and urge them to vote SB 777 out of committee. Remember that emails from constituents are the best, so think hard about who you know in these districts. Also, remember your audience is mostly farmers and cattleman, so be brief and focus on just getting the bill out of committee. Avoid the temptation to debate the merits – if someone says they won’t support the bill, move on. Here are the committee members: