Randy expressed confusion thusly:

> Jim, it's hard to see how to justify your statement that "In 
> the case at hand, we were slowed down [by the native pollinator
people] 
> for 2 crucial months when evidence was still fresh."  Indeed,
Congressman 
> Hasting's bill wasn't even for funding until 2008!  There have never
been 
> any immediate monies for research proposed, that could have been
delayed.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that I expected that all 
would focus on the meat and potatoes work that directly 
impacts fruits and vegetables.

But there have yet to be any appropriations bills introduced.
That's what disappoints me.

Understanding the depth of my dismay may require a civics refresher.

There are two kinds of bills - "Authorizations" and "Appropriations".

"Authorizing" (or "Enabling") legislation is pure philosophy and 
has grand goals.  It is where everyone grandstands and poses 
and does their best to look like they are firm supporters of 
hot issues.  Yes, dollar values are included, but often these
dollar values are far beyond what can be justified by the
facts of the matter.  Often, the dollar amounts are breathtaking.

"Appropriations" are where the rubber meets the road.  Money
is parceled out in specific fiscal years to fund very specific
efforts.  Appropriations are never very glamorous, and they
are about as exciting as trying to balance a checkbook.

To put the contrast in terms to which we can relate, let's
assume we want to go to the beach this summer.

We can "Authorize" ourselves to buy yachts in the event that 
we win the lottery and dream of how much fun that would be, 
but when it comes time to do "Appropriations", we look at 
our bank balances, and we find that need to cut back on
eating out and movies to set aside enough money to spend 
a few days at the beach this summer.

What happened this spring is that lobbying resulted in a 
stated goal of not going to the beach, not buying a yacht,
but nothing less than the restoration of environmentally
friendly sailing ships to the high seas.  Yes, that would 
be nice, but the plan is very very grand, far beyond even 
the dreams of a lottery winner, and a long-term project.

Meanwhile, we still don't even any tangible money to even 
go to the beach!  All we really wanted to do was to go
to the beach for a long weekend!  Remember?

All the bills that have taken up everyone's attention have been 
ENABLING LEGISLATION.  Here are the pending bills that mention 
"pollinator(s)":

1a) Pollinator Habitat Protection Act of 2007 (House)[HR 2913]
1b) Pollinator Habitat Protection Act of 2007 (Senate)[S 1496]

2a) Pollinator Protection Act of 2007 (Senate)[S 1694]
2b) Pollinator Protection Act (House)[HR 1709]
 
3a) Healthy Farms, Foods, and Fuels Act of 2007 (Senate)[S 919]
3b) Healthy Farms, Foods, and Fuels Act of 2007 (House)[HR 1551]

4) Energy Policy Reform and Revitalization Act of 2007 (House)[HR 2337]

5) EAT Healthy America Act (House)[HR 1600]

6) NOURISH Act of 2007 (House)[HR 2401]

Not a one of them appropriates a dime.  They "authorize" millions,
much more than is needed over the short term for our little "CCD" 
problem.  None of them are ready for a vote by either full body.

Clearly, everyone somehow drifted away from the pragmatic focus 
on a single agricultural problem, and have allowed the grand 
schemes of those who are concerned with "native pollinator 
habitats" to distract our elected representatives. 

Yes, I agree that there has not been an appropriate sense of urgency.
Such a sense of urgency is appropriate in regard to APPROPRIATIONS.

There is nothing in any of the enabling legislation that would
have prevented the short-fuse appropriation of a reasonable amount
of money to do the work that could have been done this spring and
summer.  The appropriation would have certainly been for a tiny
subset of the embarrassingly massive amounts of money mentioned in 
the various pieces of enabling legislation. 

But everyone has become distracted with dreams and grand schemes, 
and I fear that any chance to get any funding on any sort of 
"emergency" basis may be lost, as the schemes have now become 
so grand that terms like "habitat" have been worked into the 
title of bills.

Everyone involved has postured and posed and made noises, and
we still have no idea when and where the first dime will appear.

Any wonder why I am getting a little testy?

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