Student Veterans Join Sen. Tom Carper and Veterans Service Organizations on Capitol Hill to Advocate for Closing of 90/10 Loophole
Closing loophole would protect soldiers’ G.I Bill funds
from predatory for-profit colleges
Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) will be joined by veterans advocacy groups and 4 student veterans from various parts of the country who were deceived by for-profit colleges to implore Congress to close a loophole in federal law that leaves America’s veterans vulnerable to aggressive, predatory marketing and recruiting practices by for-profit colleges and career programs.
Federal law requires for-profit colleges to obtain 10 percent of their revenue from sources other than taxpayer-funded federal student aid. But the law is silent on G.I. Bill benefits, resulting in a loophole through which for-profits engage in an accounting gimmick to rake in as much taxpayer-supported G.I. Bill dollars & Defense Department Tuition Assistance dollars as possible and use it to offset the cap the schools otherwise face on federal student aid.
Currently, legislation to close the so-called “90/10 loophole” is stalled in Congress.
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Salt Lake City – On Thursday June 23, 2016, Jonathan Johnson will hold a press conference in the presentation room of the Capitol Building to unveil his plan for his first 100 days in office.
The press conference will begin at 9:00 a.m. Jonathan will be available for questions immediately following the conference.
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Adopt a DJ from the Humane Society of Utah
Alt 101.9 FM radio personality lives in animal shelter to raise donations
Radio personality Lindsey Armstrong with Alt 101.9 FM is voluntarily living at the Humane Society of Utah (HSU) located at 4242 S. 300 W. in Murray, Utah, until she raises a set goal of $3,000 in physical and monetary donations for shelter animals. This donation-based “adoption fee” to adopt a DJ benefits the Humane Society of Utah homeless animals 100 percent. Lindsey is sleeping inside a Kitty City cat villa among the shelter cats and broadcasting live from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day to encourage donations.
“We’re grateful to Lindsey for sacrificing her time to help our animals,” said Deann Shepherd, HSU representative. “She approached us and offered to do this event because she cares so much about the animals here. She’s donating her time to promote our services and adoptable pets, and we thank her for that.”
Lindsey plans to stay at the shelter until enough donations are received. Online donations may be made through the Alt 101.9 and HSU websites, or visitors are welcome to bring items in and meet Lindsey in person.
Items currently needed by HSU include kitten and puppy milk replacement formula, wet and dry kitten and puppy food, cat litter, stainless steel food and water bowls, blankets and pet toys.
The public can view Lindsey’s living arrangements in Kitty City through the shelter’s iPet Companion system, a live Internet-based camera and interactive cat toy system found at utahhumane.org/adoptadj.
For additional information, visit alt1019.com or utahhuman.org.
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Kathrens will present humane and economically sustainable solutions to BLM’s beleaguered Wild Horse and Burro Program.
WASHINGTON, DC (Tues, June 22, 2016) - Ginger Kathrens, Founder and Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation has documented and advocated for wild horse herds for over 22 years. Known as the Jane Goodall of wild horses, Kathrens’ documentation of Cloud the Wild Stallion represents the only continuing chronicle of a wild animal from birth in our hemisphere. At the invitation of Representative Raul Grijalva, (D-AZ) she will testify before the House Subcommittee on Federal Lands oversight hearing entitled, “Challenges and Potential Solutions for BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program,” Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 2:30 pm (Eastern Time) in Room 1334 Longworth House Office Building.
On May 11, 2016 the BLM issued a Press Release titled “WildHorses and Burros on Public Rangelands Now 2.5 greater than when the 1971 law was passed,” bemoaning problems which they themselves have created. Instead of embracing realistic management strategies, the BLM and some western politicians have attempted to derail the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (Wild Horse Act) aimed at protecting wild horses on public lands.
For over 20 years the BLM has had reasonable, cost effective and humane ways to maintain healthy populations of wild horses and burros on their legally designated homes on the range in the form of the fertility vaccine PZP. Dr. John Turner wrote: “. . . the consequent cost of one un-prevented foal is many times greater than a PZP-22 dose in terms of capture, processing and adoption (estimates > $ 2K) or lifelong warehousing (estimates up to $ 10K). A forty-thousand-dollar cost savings to the taxpayer on each treat/retreat mare is significant.”
Instead, BLM has chosen to ignore solid recommendations by Equine Professionals, The National Academies of Science and thousands if not millions of comments by the public recommending rational strategies and economically sustainable solutions to manage wild horse and burro populations “on the range” rather than continue inhumane and costly helicopter roundups and holding.
Prior to the hearing, Tom McClintock, Committee Chairman, released a memo describing the BLM’s program policy. Kathrens commented, “BLM alternatives are not humane and do not consider the welfare of a species protected by a unanimously passed act of Congress.”
BLM’s proposed solutions, deadly sterilization experiments on wild mares (some as young as 8 months of age), have met with public outcry not only against the BLM but also Oregon State University for expenditures of taxpayer dollars to finance surgical experiments, which have little practical application unless the death of mares is acceptable.
Kathrens, Humane Advocate on BLM’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, will offer well-thought out solutions and outline problems with the BLM’s current strategies. “Overpopulation of wild horses and burros on public lands has been alleged by the BLM and passed on without question by media for years,” Kathrens states. “However the BLM manages the population of most herd management areas at levels far below the population required for genetic viability (150-200 animals). In her testimony Kathrens states, “BLM has so marginalized wild horses that the majority of herds are too small to meet even minimal standards to ensure their genetic viability… It is obvious that one solution to warehousing wild horses and burros in costly short-term holding is a reexamination of appropriate management levels (AMLs) and a fairer allocation of available forage between wild horses and livestock.”
By establishing appropriate management levels at ridiculously low numbers, the BLM declares a huge overpopulation of wild horses and burros. However, when you look at BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro statistics closely it is easy to see that the problem lies in the herd size BLM wants to manage. Several examples are shocking. The Montezuma Peaks herd in Nevada on nearly 78,000 acres is managed at a population of 2-4 horses, therefore the current population of 64 horses is represented as 1600% over AML. BLM’s manipulation of numbers has been so successful over the years as to dupe the American Public and the media into believing that western public lands are overrun with wild horses and burros. And their “estimated” population numbers based on 20% annual reproduction has perpetuated a “sky is falling” mentality and rhetoric aimed at destroying thousands of wild horses across the west.
Rangeland Degradation by wild horses has been grossly overstated by the BLM to cover up years of livestock overgrazing. In 1990 the GAO reported: “BLM'S decisions on how many wild horses to remove from federal rangelands have not been based on direct evidence that existing wild populations exceed what the range can support. While wild horses are routinely removed. Livestock grazing frequently remains unchanged or increased after the removal of wild horses, increasing the degradation of public lands.”
A Peer review of BLM Rangeland Health Assessments states, “As of 2012, based on the records PEER received from the BLM… the agency claims that 10,480 allotments have not met standards (55% of total allotment area), and that 16% of allotments (29% of total allotment area) have failed standards due to livestock grazing.
“We have at our disposal humane and economically sustainable ways to manage wild horses on the range,” states Kathrens, “if only the BLM will agree to pursue a different path.” The Cloud Foundation and many other organizations have offered volunteer assistance to the BLM to make management of wild horses and burros on the range a reality. “It is high time the BLM perform their legal mandate to protect wild horses on public lands.”
The Preamble of the unanimously passed Wild Horse Act concludes, the wild free-roaming horse and burro “are to be considered … as an integral part of the natural system of public lands.”
The opportunity for the head of a wild horse advocate organization to testify before a congressional oversight hearing is historic. “Constituents concerned for the welfare of publicly owned wild horses and burros are tired of being ignored by the BLM and their congressional representatives,” Kathrens concludes. She continues, "Wishes of the American people are not being taken into consideration. There are far more cost effective and humane measures for managing wild horses on public lands than those under consideration by the BLM.”
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WASHINGTON, DC (June 23, 2016 ) –Republicans on the Federal Lands Sub-Committee launched a full out assault on wild horses on public lands in the West, while absent Democratic members conducted a sit-in on gun control legislation at the Capital. What was supposed to be an “oversight hearing,” on the “Challenges and Potential Solutions for BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program,” devolved into a vicious political attack on legally Protected Wild Horses and Burros and the only advocate present to represent them. Subcommittee Chairman, Tom McClintock only asked questions that supported their position that wild horses are to be blamed for the destruction of western rangelands even though they roam on less than 12% of puvlic lands where privately-owned livestock are allocated 82% of the forage.
Ginger Kathrens, Volunteer Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation and Humane Advocate on BLM's National Wild Horse Advisory Board was the lone expert witness to present the case for the wild horses and burros. Her fact-based, 5 minute summary was distilled from a detailed document the Colorado organization presented to the committee. Ginger outlined humane, financially sustainable and common-sense solutions to the BLM’s self-created crisis.
Kathrens was asked no follow up questions on substance. Instead she was marginalized as Congressmen and Congresswoman, Cynthia Lummis railed against BLM and their inability to control populations. The all-Republican shoot out, was aimed squarely at what they perceived as the silver bullets---euthanasia, slaughter, and sterilization. One member compared sterilization of wild horses to taking his puppy in for neutering. And Rep. Lummis talked of how she supports humane euthanasia, as the horses would die in a “lovely way.”
“With each passing minute, I was hoping I would actually be asked a question on the factual presentation I made,” stated Kathrens. “That moment never came.”
The other “expert” witnesses, Dr. J.J. Goicoechea, DVM, State Veterinarian, Deputy Administrator, State of Nevada Department of Agriculture; Callie Hendrickson, Executive Director, White River and Douglas Creek Conservation Districts, Chairwoman, American Farm Bureau Federal Lands Issue Advisory Council; and Keith Norris, Director, Government Affairs & Partnerships, The Wildlife Society, Chair, National Horse and Burro Rangeland Management Coalition, hold pro-slaughter and pro permanent-sterilization positions. The majority of questions were asked of at Dr. J.J. Goicoechea, DVM, State Veterinarian and Deputy Administrator – State of Nevada, who talked of how the horses are dying on the range of dehydration and lack of forage. He provided a photo of an emaciated mare with a nursing foal but no data to support his claim. When Kathrens was asked about whether bison and elk were native, she was abruptly cut off when she attempted to tell the Committee why the wild horse is actually more native than most other hooved species.
“The occasion was a sad commentary on the democratic process, when elected leaders are so intimidated by alternative viewpoints that they stack the deck and shut-out caring and dedicated citizens from sharing their personal experiences and knowledge,” said Anni Williams, TCF Board member who was on location with Kathrens when newborn Cloud, for whom TCF is named, came tottering out of the trees as Kathrens filmed. “Without ever allowing Ginger to cite her scientific sources regarding such issues as to whether wild horses are native or not to North America, Congressman Crescent Hardy abruptly cut her off concluding that he was frustrated by ‘uneducated comments’ expressed by animal rights activists,” Williams concluded.
Even Washington insiders seemed stunned at the one-sided line of questioning and the level of anger expressed about the presence of wild horses on Western rangelands.
The House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Federal Lands It is made up of 24 members – 15 Republicans and 9 Democrats.
Only Republicans asked questions: Tom McClintock (R-CA) Doug LaMalfa, (R-CA0, Rob Bishop, (R-UT), Don Young, (R - AL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Cynthia Lummis, (R-WY), Bruce Westerman (R-ARK), and Cresent Hardy (R-NV).
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