This morning I had breakfast with an old friend.  He mentioned the
continuing misuse of the hunting and fishing excise tax money by the US Fish
and Wildlife Service.  These are the hundreds of millions of dollars
collected annually as taxes on arms, ammunition, fishing tackle, and
motorboat fuel.  These funds are specified for sport fish and wildlife
programs managed by State (not Federal) fish and wildlife agencies.  The
only portion of these funds that may be used by the US Fish and Wildlife
Service (the Administrator of the funds) is a specified amount for
administration.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service not only continues to
withhold more than this amount, they are cleverly influencing the use of the
funds to advance the environmental and animal rights agendas so in vogue in
Washington these days.

My friend asked if I could do anything about these growing scandals.  He
named someone who knew some things that I might find interesting.  Would I
call him?

I thought about this for a moment.  My response (dolled up as a Bedtime
Story to get your attention) went something like this:

Once upon a time...

From the 1930's through the Reagan Administration the excise taxes went
unhindered to state fish and wildlife agencies to provide hunting and
fishing programs that also and in large measure provided benefits to the
environment, all wild things, and people of all stripes that enjoyed the
outdoors and all it offered.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service worked with
state agencies and helped protect them from the occasional state politician
that would divert the funds for other purposes.  Each year the amount
withheld for "administration" by the US Fish and Wildlife Service was less
(often less than half) of the amount allowed by law.

Beginning under the first Bush Administration, hunting and fishing were
downplayed as Endangered Species and Marine Mammals and Environmental
falderal displaced hunting and fishing activities.  Environmental and animal
rights activists were being hired and promoted to key management as well as
entry positions for two decades by then.  The combination of Civil Service
Reform and Equal Opportunity bonuses likewise further reduced qualification
requirements and resource management experience in the Federal agencies.
Instead of taking minimal amounts from the excise taxes for "administration",
the entire allowed amount began to be taken and used for various Federal
purposes by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Fortuitously (for the Federal activists) state fish and wildlife agencies
(who were losing funds due to the larger Federal "cut") were diverted to the
"new" "promise of the future".  That "promise" was the dream of a "non-game"
tax and "more" Federal grants from the US Congress through the Federal
agencies.  To this day, state fish and wildlife managers (like state Highway
Department managers and Chiefs of Police et al) look to access to "more"
Federal funding as the answer to higher pay, more bonuses, increased
retirements, and job security if they please Federal masters.  So the states
never squawked as the "Federal administration cut" went up.  Hunters,
fishermen, trappers, and other beneficiaries never suspected anything
because the US Fish and Wildlife Service still had some shred of respect and
state fish and wildlife employees were some of the most trusted public
employees in the nation.  They said everything was OK and we all believed
them.

Then along came the Clinton Administration and (more than the Nixon or Ford
or Carter [?] or Reagan or Bush Administration) a cadre of environmental and
animal rights activists.  They were truly "hard core" types. They were very
circumspect about declaring this to keep opponents asleep in their chairs.
One of the first things they zeroed in on was all those millions supporting
"hunting and fishing".  As they sped up the already overheated funding and
support of Endangered Species and Marine Mammal animal worship and the
destruction of private property rights, they developed a subterfuge to
eliminate hunting and fishing.  It was not uncommon to hear that "many
states would ban trapping and several would ban hunting by the millennium".

Then the Republicans took over the House of Representatives (1994) for the
first time in 40 years.  Fired political activists from House Committees
were placed in Federal agencies including the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The "second" female Director (the "first" one had just passed away in
office) of the US Fish and Wildlife Service was appointed after a
rocket-like ascent up through the Endangered Species Office.  Both
indifferent and hostile (to hunting, fishing, trapping, resource management
et al) top managers assumed top jobs and sped up the hiring of their clones
and the firing of "hook and bullet" employees like yours truly.  They even
picked up, at a high level, the child of a powerful politician of the
opposite party that proved to be a powerful chess piece in subsequent
political maneuvering.

And, more of the hunting and fishing excise taxes began to disappear..

In 1998 and 1999 I told the Republican House Resources Committee about the
diversion of the funding.  There were three big and well-attended hearings.
The General Accounting Office audited the books and found that in just two
years $45 to 60 Million had been "skimmed" (i.e. STOLEN) by the US Fish and
Wildlife Service to 1.) introduce wolves into Yellowstone and open a
California Office (both of which had been denied funding by Congress) and
2.) pay bonuses and salaries to various favored employees unattached to the
"administration" of the excise taxes (a direct violation of the law).

The result?

1.)    No Federal employee even missed a bonus much less was disciplined,
fired, prosecuted, or tried.

2.)    The State agencies (from whom the funds were stolen) never even asked
for the funding to be replaced.

3.)    "Our" hunting and fishing organizations acted duly grim but never
raised a fuss.

4.)    The wolves have spread; decimated elk, moose, bighorn sheep, and
ranching operations; and the California Office remains a magnet for and
command center for California environment and animal rights radicals.

5.)    Hunters, fishermen, and trappers remain suspicious of Federal
employees but still respect the integrity of state agency managers.

6.)    The money was never replaced.

7.)    To this day, there has been no outcry about the loss of $60+ Million
worth of hunting and fishing programs or the use of hunter and fishermen
excise taxes to implement Federal programs to decimate hunting and fishing.

When the current Bush Administration came in, the old Director resigned,
served a lucrative stint with the Wildlife Federation (formerly a hunting
support organization) and she now serves as a top manager in the
anti-hunting and anti- trapping Defenders of Wildlife that (among other
things) serves as a smokescreen "reimbursing ranchers for losses to wolves"
as Federal wolves wreak havoc.  The political activists remain in place, the
same Deputy Director (also from the Endangered Species/ "international UN
cooperation" wing of the Service) likewise remains.  The politician's child
has moved up and they all have carefully balanced their jobs with getting
the Party that favors "more" funding, personnel, and programs (translation:
higher pay, more power, more benefits) back in power.

And the excise tax manipulations continued to the loss of hunters et al
(notice I no longer say the state fish and wildlife agency).

Over the past six years Congress authorized the states to spend $80 Million
to compose environmental "wish-lists" with no boundaries.  Called State
Comprehensive Wildlife Plans, they are little more than environmental
fantasies about all the land and rights and human activities the states
"need" to control to "prevent species from becoming endangered".  They have
been rolled up in Washington and (I will make an "educated" guess) total
Billions.  At an opportune moment (the "new" House [?] or the next President
[?] or some "emergency [?]) the Congress will start funding these state
programs.  "Funding" is "governmentese" for directing and steering by
Federal bureaucrats.

And so boys and girls, the disgraced old bureaucrat (that would be me) tried
for six years to get all the hunting and fishing excise taxes applied to
hunting and fishing as they were intended to be.  He wrote about it, he
talked about it, and he lobbied about it: all to no avail.  An abundance of
truly vicious things said about me and written to me know no bounds of sex,
race, or age.  I am despised by retirees (who feel that their lifelong
"mission" is tarnished by my activities).  State wildlife agency directors
and non-government agency lobbyists deeply resent what they believe to be my
jeopardizing their future plans for Federal funding and their duplicity with
members and supporters.  Federal employees, well need I say more?  (They
have been protected from me by concerned Federal managers that have blocked
government access to my blog and do not look kindly on any contact to my
phone or computer by government employees.) University professors merely
sniff at my name and ponder the floor where they look for me.  Animal rights
and environmental activists rattle at my name.  Politicians and their staffs
merely ask, "who?"

The Lesson:

When I "blew the whistle" to Congress years ago there were Congressmen
(Richard Pombo, Helen Chenoweth, Don Young, etc.) who were duly skeptical
about bureaucrats and took their oath of office seriously.  Today,
Congresswoman Chenoweth has passed away, Congressman Pombo was destroyed by
environmentalists (like the Defenders of Wildlife, hmmm), and Congressman
Young does other things.  In truth, a great deal of their success was due to
a Republican House anxious to embarrass a Democrat President.  That
incentive has not existed for six years while a single party has controlled
the White House and both branches of Congress. Hence, the lack of interest
in pursuing scandals during this period.

But, you say, won't a Democrat House and/or Senate pursue this?  The answer
is, sadly, no.  Why?  Because the Democrats are the party of the
environmental and animal rights groups and those groups (and nearly all
current Democrat and Republican politicians) want to gain passage of large
amounts of Federal funding for state fish and wildlife agencies.  (Think of
the publicity, why they will probably get votes from as far away as
Australia and Switzerland.) This will be a hard sell if it is tried on the
heels of another massive scandal involving the misuse of the excise taxes
since the funding takeover of state fish and wildlife agencies is touted to
be run "just like the hunting and fishing excise taxes".  That is through
the US Fish and Wildlife Service with regulations and administrative
policies that will make state agencies merely subcontractors to Federal
bureaucrats.  All you hunters et al out there, think about that.  How long
will "your" state agency defend your rights or your activities?  Will they
respond to you or your politicians when they get most of their money from
Federal bureaucrats to do what Federal bureaucrats say?  If anyone tells you
they will still work for you, tell them to look at the Universities.  The
perversion of "research" and "best science" as a direct result of Federal
funding and it's control answers the question better than I can.  Look at
state Highway Departments where Federal bureaucrats even tell them what they
can and can't plant along the roadways.

So the Democrats will carry the water for the anti-hunters and the
Republicans that survived the last election are all the
"middle-of-the-roaders" and "me-tooers" that represent compromise on all
issues involving the hidden agendas behind environmental and animal rights
"proposals".  So who would you suggest we go to and tell about the current
funding abuses?

Meanwhile, the old Director dreams about returning to the Department of the
Interior as Secretary under the next President.  The political activist
carefully feeds information to all the likely Democrat Presidential
contenders in hopes of a big appointment in two years.  The old Deputy
Director and the politician's child try to keep informal feelers out to
Presidential contenders of both parties in hopes of being kept on in their
very lucrative positions.  The environmental and animal rights activists
tease the Republicans about supporting them if they "play ball" (like
Senator Allen and his "Heritage Areas" and Senator Santorum and his "Puppy
Protection Act") all the while ready to pull back the ball at the last
second like Lucy in Peanuts.  One need look no further than the Current
Secretary of the Interior's pandering to global warming by Listing polar
bears as Threatened by a warm spell (thereby triggering Kyoto without the
niceties of ratification). The phones will be alive for the next two years
between bureaucrats and NGO's and Congressional staffs after hours.  One
example after another of Republican mismanagement (not enough funding or
people for X, Y or Z: trying to set porpoise take limits: "gutting" the
Endangered Species Act: selling off land: etc.) will be fed to the
Committees by these bureaucrats and hearings will result in "more" for the
"environment" and animal "protection".  But there will not be a peep about
the excise taxes or any fiscal shenanigans in US Fish and Wildlife Service
if for no other reason than the Committees will be dependent on the
information fed to them by the bureaucrats doing all the mismanagement.

If you hunt, fish, trap, live in a rural area, own animals or other
property, or make your living from natural resources you need to think about
this.  I don't say these things to be political, only to try and describe
political reality.  Our rights are eroding all around.  Horse owners may no
longer sell their horse to a slaughterhouse.  More and more public land and
waters are being closed as Wildernesses and Marine Sanctuaries.  More
animals are being "protected" (i.e. forbidden to use or manage).  Big game
herds are being reduced by unchecked predators and Federal campaigns to
"purify" the environment (i.e. Invasive Species jihads) are set to eliminate
everything from brown trout to pheasants.  Unmanaged marine mammals decimate
fisheries that are then used as an excuse to destroy dams and decimate
commercial fishing fleets.

Four hundred years ago John Donne said it best.  Consider the following in
light of what is going on today:

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee."

We are each involved in the rights of others.  If the rights of others can
be destroyed, so can ours.  Unless we defend each other, we all lose.  I
hope to begin writing more in line with this new political paradigm.  It is
my intention to tailor recommendations more in line with an admittedly
steeper hill to climb.

Oh and by the way, I plan to keep up with the scandals and to write about
them in hopes of a reader or two better understanding what is going on and
perhaps seeing solutions that an old bureaucrat can't imagine.  I can't end
this with the usual "They lived happily everafter", but I can end it with
hope for the future and a Happy New Year wish to all!

Jim Beers

30 December 2006

- If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others.  Thanks.


- This article and other recent articles by Jim Beers can be found at
http://jimbeers.blogster.com   (Jim Beers Common Sense)

- Jim Beers is available for consulting or to speak.  Contact:
jimbeers7@verizon.net

- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist,
Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.