We have gotten HB5776 passed through the Ag Committee, and it is scheduled to move to the Senate for a second reading tomorrow morning (May 15). Unfortunately, the amendment removing the prohibitions against the Governor and the IDOA making rules contrary to the bill was not withdrawn. All indications are that the bill will pass the Senate with flying colors.

We need to contact all of our represenatives, and urge them to put aside their differences with the Senate in order to pass this bill through the house. Please also contact Speaker Madigan's office directly, and urge support of this bill - even with the Senate amendment included. If you get the chance, also send off a post card or letter to everyone you call. Multiple contacts with these folks from each of us would NOT be a bad thing!

If you have friends, neighbors or business associates - anyone who might at all be interested, please urge them also to contact their reps.

Several legislators from both houses have intimated that this is going to be a hard sell in the House, but please remember to be polite and stick to the point that we need this bill passed and sent to the Governor's desk. We can be sympathetic to their position while remaining firm on the idea of getting this bill passed into law.

We also need to contact the Governor, and ask him to please sign the bill into law should it arrive on his desk.

This legislative session ends Thursday, May 29 - for better or worse. We need each of these represenatives to know there are a lot of people who are very much in favor of this bill!

Now, I know it isn't all we had hoped for. But we do need something, and this is as close as we are going to get this year. IDOA can have a bill ready and waiting for the next session, possibly even sooner, which would make our job infinitely more difficult next time.

  On very short notice, we have gotten the chance to hold our first annual convention in Bloomington!!

We will be meeting with members, interested parties, and individuals who are concerned about the NAIS program.

Location: Double Tree Hotel, 10 Brickyard Drive, Bloomington, IL - Ballroom 4

Time: 11 am to 4:30 pm

Lunch: for those registered today, lunch will be $18 and is a Southwest style buffet. Otherwise, there are a la carte options and local restaurants nearby. Lunch will be from 12:30 - 1:30

Speakers will be:

Sharon and Mike Sabo: The Constitution and Cheddar Cheese

Mr. Rader: about his situation concerning the IL Scrapie program

We will also be discussing the current status of HB5776, which would keep the NAIS program voluntary in the state of Illinois, and strategizing for the next session. Legislators have been invited to attend.

Please contact anyone you believe would be interested, including members of any 4H, FFA or other agricultural groups in your area and give your representative and senator a call to invite them as well!

Registration is only required if you will be ordering the hotel lunch - otherwise, simply drop in and introduce yourself! That deadline (unfortunately) is this evening by 6 pm CDT.

NAIS is the National Animal Identification System. It is billed as a voluntary program by the USDA.

Sharon a good friend of mine, IICFA founder, wife, mother and goat breeder in Southern IL, has found out just how voluntary this program is.

First, her children wanted to show their goats at the county fair. The IDOA issued a rule last year, and published it this January, stating that in order to show at the IL State Fair, or any county fair within the state, one must present their premise ID number, thus making NAIS mandatory.

Then, she had to give up her membership in the American Dairy Goat Association, because they actively support the NAIS program, and rumors abound that they have turned over their membership information to the USDA. The only way to avoid it was to leave, thus decreasing immediately the amount of money her goats were worth on the market.

An out of state buyer was interested in her goats. In order to ship livestock across state lines, one needs a CVI, or Certificate of Veterinary Inspection. She went to get the inspection done, and the vet refused to provide this service without a premise ID number under the NAIS program. So, now she can't sell any animals unless she sells to a customer within the State.

And, as if that were not bad enough - based on the ADGA rumor she inquired as to whether or not she already had a premise ID number. She could not get that information herself... Finally about three weeks ago, after contacting her state senator several times, she was informed by him that - yes - indeed she is a part of the program!

Sharon now faces many months navigating the morass of USDA rules for "opting out" of the program. Seems ok until one realizes that this merely inactivates the number, but does not delete any of the information from the database!

This is just one of several cases I am aware of that call into serious question the "Voluntary" status of the NAIS program, and only one of dozens of issues that needs to be addressed.

I invite anyone to join my group here called "Illinois Consumers & Farmers" - NAIS is the main, but not the only issue there.

If you have an issue with this program, I urge everyone to get involved by finding their state's anti-NAIS group at yahoogroups (every state has one) or google nonais.org for more information.