Dear Native Farm Bill Coalition members,
The U.S. House and Senate have now named conferees for the 2018 Farm Bill conference committee. As you know, there are a number of Indian Country provisions included in one or both of the House and Senate versions of the bill. Over the next month, the conference committee will be choosing which provisions are kept or discarded. Many provisions would be of historic importance to tribal governments and communities, Native producers, and all of Indian Country.
In the next few weeks, it is critically important that federal lawmakers – and especially the conferees – hear from you.
In this Coalition, we have united like never before to help each other advocate for the interests of Indian Country, and now we need your urgent help to ensure key provisions are retained in the final compromise that will become the Conference Farm Bill
.
Please take a moment to send a letter to the members of the Farm Bill conference committee next week, urging their support for the various provisions supported by Indian Country and advanced by the Native Farm Bill Coalition!
- To view a sample letter you can customize and use, click here. Of course, you may modify the substance of your letter to include issues of particular importance to your tribe.
- To view a list of Indian Country’s top priorities, click here. For a full side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate Farm Bill proposals, click here. We suggest you include both documents as attachments to your letter.
- After you send your letters, we urge you to underscore the message in your letter by following up with phone calls to conferees and to House and Senate leaders and to members of the congressional delegation from your area.
- For a full list of the conferees, House/Senate leaders, and their legislative directors, click here.
Time is of the essence. Thank you for your ongoing partnership and engagement as a member of the Native Farm Bill Coalition. Together, we’ve made major strides forward on behalf of Indian Country – but we aren’t done yet.
Please don’t wait to make your voice heard: Send letters and make calls as soon as possible. It looks like final decisions will be made during the next several weeks.
