Open Letters to Our Leaders

Dear Senator,

I am writing to urge you to oppose S. 1955, Senator Mike Enzi's anti-consumer health insurance bill. The bill increases healthcare costs to the majority of consumers, while it decreases their insurance coverage, and it guts strong state health care laws that require life-saving coverage such as mammograms and cancer screenings.

The bill is supposed to decrease insurance costs for small businesses, but state insurance commissioners say that it may actually increase small business costs. Please oppose S. 1955.

Thank you,

I strongly urge you to reject the House's radical approach of ignoring all laws to require the building of a double-layered fence along much of the southern border.

Like you, I want our country to be safe and our borders to be secure. I also believe we can accomplish these things without sacrificing our wildlife and wild places. I hope that you will work to ensure that public lands, wildlife and its habitat, clean water, clean air, and public health are protected as you work to secure America's borders.

The American borderlands encompass some of our nation's most compelling and unique landscapes and some of the most threatened lands. In fact, approximately half of the land along the Mexican border and 25 percent of the land along the Canadian border are federal and tribal lands that include national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, forests and wilderness areas. Our border areas are havens for an incredible diversity of wildlife, including jaguars, wolves, bald eagles, and the highly endangered Sonoran pronghorn.

By securing our borders in a way that also protects the land, air, water, and wildlife found in America's borderlands, we are also securing our nation's wild heritage. Again, I strongly urge you to reject the radical House approach of requiring a massive fence project along our southern border, and to protect our natural wonders as you work to protect our security.

Thank you for considering my comments.