FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE

ACTION REQUEST



11/02/2007



Illinois Farm Bureau

Governmental Affairs and Commodities





Who to Contact
Your member of Congress and Senator Obama and Durbin




Method of Contact
Telephone, email or fax




Number of Contacts Requested
20 per county




Completion Date of Contacts
Friday, November 9 or date of override – Whichever occurs first




Issue Summary
Congress must override the President’s Veto of WRDA




Staff Contact
Chuck Spencer, Director of National Legislation




ACTION MESSAGE



Thank you for your support of WRDA (Water Resources Development Act). We need you to take one last vote to pass WRDA and override the President’s veto.



We need to pass WRDA to improve our river transportation system to match the investments of our global competitors.



CONTACT INFORMATION



Contacts should be made by E-mailing, calling, or sending a fax to your Congressman. Consult you legislative directory for contact information. The easiest way to find information or communicate will be to use the IFB Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/ilfb/state/main/?state=IL.



REPORTING CONTACTS



Report Deadline: Tuesday, November 13, 2007. Please report your contacts by emailing Liz Hobart at Hobart@ilfb.org visiting the Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/ilfb, or calling 1-800-879-1976, or by fax at 309-557-3729, or clicking on the fifth statement under “Contact Us” on the website. Provide your name, address, county, who was contacted, and the number of contacts made. The contact report (which shows the total number of contacts made by county) will be posted in the leaders section of the IFB website after the deadline date.



BACKGROUND INFORMATION



Every member of Congress and both Senator from Illinois supported the passage of WRDA.



Modernization of the locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi is a priority issue for Farm Bureau.



Updating the locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers is essential for U.S. commerce and the agricultural sector. One medium-size tow on the river can carry the same weight as 870 trucks.



However, the structures were built over 60 years ago and are not designed to accommodate today’s barge tows.



While these outdated locks and dams make our transportation system inefficient, our competitors in Argentina and Brazil are aggressively modernizing their own infrastructure.