ACTION ALERT - Encourage Risch, Crapo to Pass CWD Bill
Image: Idaho Fish and Game
On April 28th, 2022 Senators John Hoeven (R-ND) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act to the U.S. Senate. This act is a Senate version of legislation passed by the House of Representatives last December with an overwhelming 393-33 bipartisan vote.
The bill must pass the Senate Agriculture committee before advancing to the Senate floor for a vote.
The bill is co-sponsored by an impressively bipartisan group of legislatures including 26 Republican and 12 Democratic legislators.
Idaho Wildlife Federation supports the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act, which would give state agencies the resources needed to manage, mitigate, and research this disease. The bill would authorize $70 million a year from Fiscal Year 2022 to Fiscal Year 2028 in CWD funding, split evenly between management actions and research. $35 million would fund coordination between the US Department of Agriculture, state and tribal wildlife agencies, and state departments of agriculture. The other $35 million would fund CWD research including developing methods to detect CWD in live cervids, improved testing sensitivity, sustainable harvest management practices to reduce CWD and mechanisms to transmission and effective barriers.
Most recently found here in Idaho, CWD is an always fatal prion disease. CWD has now spread to wild deer herds in 29 states and three Canadian provinces.
A sincere thank you to Representatives Simpson and Fulcher for voting to pass the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act through the U.S. House of Representatives.