On November 17, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a federal budget bill which contains a proposal that would weaken US mining laws and put millions of acres of public land, including lands sacred to Native Americans, up for sale.
This proposal stands to affect several Oxfam America partners, including the Western Shoshone Defense Project. For years, the Shoshone have been fighting to protect Mt. Tenabo, a Shoshone sacred site in Nevada. The amendment would give mining companies the option of tearing up Mt. Tenabo—without any input from the Shoshone.

While the House bill did pass, it did so by only two votes—a narrow margin that can be attributed at least in part to the thousands of responses from Oxfam supporters to our earlier action alert. Now it’s time to turn our energy to the Senate.

On to the Senate

On or around December 13th, a conference committee will convene to reconcile House and Senate budget bills. The Pombo Amendment language is only included in the House bill; it is not included in the Senate bill. When conferees determine the language of the final bill, we want to be sure it does not include the amendment.

We need you to write your Senators TODAY and tell them you oppose the Pombo Amendment.

Gaining Traction

A deluge of news stories and editorials shows that people are waking up to the serious dangers posed by the Pombo Amendment. All the Western state governors and many Western Senators, including Sen. Thomas (R-WY) and Sen. Allard (R-CO), oppose the amendment. With your help, there's still hope that the mining language will be dropped in conference.
Congress has a responsibility to manage the nation's public lands for the benefit of all American citizens now and in the future. Please take action and contact your Senator to ensure Congress lives up to that responsibility.
Sincerely,

Keith Slack
Extractive Industries Campaign Manager

P.S. Thank your Representative!

Learn how your Representative voted on the budget bill. The correct vote was NO. If your member voted correctly, please give them a call and thank them for voting against the budget reconciliation bill containing the Pombo mining provision.