Aaron forwarded a note from Troy Fore that said:

> Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California proposed an amendment 
> to take $5 million from specialty crops and give to CCD 
> research. He had no Democratic support and agreed to 
> withdraw it. Here's some perspective on that amendment: 
> specialty crops is getting 1600 million dollars in the 
> Farm Bill; we want just 5 million of that.

Hold on there... (gosh, I end up saying that a lot here)

Here's the deal. The "Specialty Crops" people felt 
entitled to their "just due".

Having someone, anyone, come along and try and divert some
of "their money" that they worked so hard to lobby for
likely angered them, and they pressured their representatives
to not allow the money to be "stolen".  They had very
"broad support", as they had done their lobbying and 
letter-writing long ago, and worked to get "broad support".

So, the amendment failed.  Miserably.

Just as we beekeepers were understandably angry at the 
shenanigans that resulted in CCD being used to justify
funding for preservation/conservation of native pollinators
rather than short-term funding for CCD work, we should put 
on the sneakers of the "Specialty Crops" folks, walk a few 
miles, and realize that they reacted with UNDERSTANDABLE 
anger at the attempt to divert funding that they thought 
was a "done deal".

So, when you call, or write, or fax, please DON'T 
insist on support for the specific McCarthy amendment,
as it would only be met with more resistance.  Simply
ask that funding be scraped up from ELSEWHERE.

And while we are on the subject, $5 million sounds a
bit grandiose for CCD work, when the entire USDA-ARS
Bee Lab program costs about $11 million a year.  Maybe
we need to simply ask for a smaller amount of money
for the short-term work to triage and diagnose the
problem, rather than the sort of "empire-building"
long-term program that might be assumed to be inherent 
in $5 million.

Yes, it is a darn shame that the Specialty Crops folks
did not instantly agree that reliable pollination was 
a need that they shared an interest in preserving, and 
yeah, $5 million is "loose change" when talking about 
$1.6 billion (yes, billion with a "b"), but we should
NOT make the same sort of presumptuous mistakes as the 
native pollinator folks made, now should we?

Anyway, do we really want to alienate a bunch of 
pollination clients?  I don't think so.  It would be
better to ask Congress to look for the $5 million
(or whatever) under the couch cushions in the 
Congressional lounge.

So, to summarize:

1) Yes, DO ask for immediate funding for CCD work.

2) No, DON'T ask for any specific funds to be diverted
   from "Specialty Crops".  (Learn from experience!)

3) Yes, DO ask for money for THIS year.  The darn farm
   bill money will be a long time in coming, so we
   need to stress that we can't wait for the farm
   bill money.  We need CURRENT USDA funding (money
   from the LAST farm bill) diverted to CCD work.

4) And we really don't care where the money comes from,
   do we?  That decision is up to Congress.
   

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