Madeleine’s Response to the BLM’s Statement

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March 31, 2009

The Bureau of Land Management just released a statement regarding my plan for the wild horses. I am gratified to see that the BLM is taking my offer seriously. The current handling of the wild horses is a serious problem, and it deserves the immediate attention of the BLM.

In the BLM’s response, they concede my proposal would save the taxpayers millions of dollars, but raise several legalisms that the BLM says would prevent them from accepting my proposal without Congressional authorization, and they also point out that most of their contracts are awarded by competitive bidding.

I strongly favor competition for government contracts to assure that the process by which our taxpayer dollars are spent is open and transparent. I hope that the BLM will join with me to ask Congress to authorize an open competition to provide a solution for the wild horses that is more humane and cost effective than the alternatives that the BLM has identified under existing law.

I will be happy to submit my proposal under a competitive process to select the most humane, cost effective solution to this problem. I expect to meet with Congressional staff and the acting director of the BLM later this week to discuss how this can be done.