During the last week of April 2010 the Massachusetts House of Representatives debated the fiscal year 2011 state budget. Prior to the debates taking place, the House members were required to submit any proposed amendments to the budget. When these amendments were posted for the general public, GOAL alerted our members to several threats to professional wildlife management here in the Commonwealth. We are pleased to say that the calls from our members and the hard work of friendly legislators were successful!

Two amendments were filed to the FY2011 House budget that would have diverted millions of dollars from the Inland Fisheries and Game Fund. The proposed amendments, #149 and #152 filed by Representative James Murphy of the 4th Norfolk District were ulitmately defeated!

H2259 - GOAL's Civil Rights and Public Safety Bill gets Extension Order 3/17/10 Update
According to Joint Rule 10 of the Massachusetts legislature, all joint committees must act on bills by mid March. GOALS's bill is within the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security. The committees have a choice of several options when acting on legislation. They can place it in a "study order", release it as "ought to pass" or "ought not to pass" or as in the case of GOAL's bill H.2259 "An Act Relative to Civil Rights and Public Safety" the committee can file for an extension order.

Although the Committee did not release H.2259 as "ought to pass", they did ask for an extension order. This is actually good news as this would tend to mean they wish to continue working on it this session. Please call, email, and write to the committee members and your representatives to urge them to release this bill ASAP with a favorable report.

Please see additional information regarding current legislation at: http://goal.org/legislation.html