Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. 2012

Statement

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. LUMMIS. Madam Chairman, the gentleman from California would be correct, that ranchers and farmers should be able to pay to deal with the predator situation. The problem is, they're not allowed to.

The Federal Government doesn't allow people to kill predators that are attacking their livestock. So consequently, here's another situation just like we discussed yesterday, where the government puts restrictions on ranchers and farmers so they cannot protect their own livestock. So the taxpayers--because of their demands that ranchers and farmers not protect their own livestock, the Federal Government steps in.

In addition, though, wildlife strikes on airplanes cost U.S. commercial aviation $700 million a year. One part of Wildlife Services is when USDA works with 822 domestic airports, as well as Department of Defense air bases in the U.S. and in Iraq and in Afghanistan. So part of this is to assist with efforts to prevent conflict between wildlife and commercial aviation flights, some of which can be quite devastating and deadly.

Furthermore, there's been an $18 million loss of sheep and lands to predators, or $111 million when you add cattle and calf losses. Absent predator management, losses would explode, and that would drive family farms and ranchers out of business.

This is a very balanced program in terms of the approach it takes to shared responsibility between airport managers and Wildlife Services, ranchers and farmers and Wildlife Services. It requires a tremendous cost share or matching program at greater than 40 percent. The Wildlife Services Division
has more than 2,500 cooperative agreements in place across the United States.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source