Page 12A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Congress settles for
stopgap to avoid
government shutdown
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Congress took the easy way
out to keep the government
open on the eve of Donald
Trump’s 100th day in office,
passing a weeklong stop-gap
spending bill Friday that
amounted to more of a defeat
for the president than a
victory.
Lawmakers
cleared
the measure easily with
just hours to spare before
the shutdown deadline at
midnight. But with Trump
marking his presidency’s
milestone Saturday, he did
not wring any major legisla-
tion out of Congress, despite
a renewed White House push
to revive the House GOP’s
health care bill in time for
a vote that could give him
bragging rights.
House leaders are still
short of votes for the revised
health bill, though they could
bring it to the floor next week
if they find the support they
need. House Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy said the
plan was to pass the bill “as
soon as possible.”
Also
next
week
lawmakers plan to pass a $1
trillion package financing the
government through Sept.
30, the end of the 2017 fiscal
year.
The temporary spending
bill keeps the government
functioning through next
Friday, to allow lawmakers
time to wrap up negotiations
on the larger measure. The
Senate sent the stopgap bill to
Trump by voice vote Friday
after the House approved it
by a lopsided 382-30 margin.
“Today’s measure shows
the American people that
we are making a good-faith
effort to keep our govern-
ment open,” said Rep. Pete
Sessions, R-Texas. “While
this is not ideal, I support
this effort to provide our
colleagues with more time
to reach a final agreement
on legislation to fund the
government through the
fiscal year.”
$
The struggle over both
bills was embarrassing to the
GOP, which has Trump in the
White House and majorities
in Congress. Yet even with
unified control, it’s proving
an uphill fight for Republi-
cans to make good on seven
years’ worth of promises to
repeal and replace former
President Barack Obama’s
health care law.
“I’m disappointed that it
doesn’t go quicker,” Trump
said of his interactions with
Congress, in an interview
airing Friday on Fox News
Channel.
At least 18 Republicans,
mostly moderates, said
they oppose the health care
legislation, and many others
remained publicly uncom-
mitted. That puts party elders
in an uncomfortable spot
because if 22 Republicans
defect, the bill will fail,
assuming all Democrats
oppose it.
House Speaker Paul
Ryan, R-Wis., wants to avoid
an encore of last month’s
embarrassment, when he
abruptly canceled a vote on a
health care overhaul because
of opposition from moderates
and conservatives alike.
Republicans have recast
the health bill to let states
escape a requirement under
Obama’s 2010 law that
insurers charge healthy
and seriously ill customers
the same rates. The overall
legislation would cut the
Medicaid program for the
poor, eliminate Obama’s
fines for people who don’t
buy insurance and provide
generally skimpier subsi-
dies. Centrist Republicans
were the primary target of
lobbying by the White House
and GOP leaders.
Meanwhile negotiations
moved ahead on the longer-
term spending bill, Most
of the core decisions about
agency budgets have been
worked out, but unrelated
policy issues are among the
hold-ups.
4 , 000
Joe Doucette/Nevada Department of Wildlife via AP, File
This Feb. 1 file photo provided by the Nevada Department of Wildlife shows a Nevada game warden display-
ing the carcasses and wings of two golden eagles and a hawk seized from an Arizona man accused of killing
an eagle and illegally possessing raptor parts at the department’s office in Elko.
Eagle ‘chop shop’ offers window into trafficking
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A two-year
undercover operation that led to indict-
ments against 15 people for illegally
trafficking eagles and other migratory
birds offers a rare window into the black
market for eagle carcasses, feathers,
parts and handicrafts, including one
alleged dealer who called himself the
“best feather man in the Midwest.”
The indictments announced this
week in Rapid City, South Dakota,
portray an illicit trade carried out
through face-to-face meetings, emails,
texts and personal introductions. Eagle
heads or wings can fetch hundreds of
dollars, though sellers sometimes trade
goods such as bear claws, buffalo horn
caps or animal hides. The eagle parts
are often used in Native American-style
handicrafts.
“This was the illegal black market
trafficking of eagles and eagle parts for
profit,” South Dakota U.S. Attorney
Randy Seiler said. “It basically was a
chop shop for eagles.”
Federal law limits possession
of eagle feathers and other parts to
enrolled members of federally recog-
nized tribes who use them in religious
practices. Bald eagles once nearly
disappeared from most of the U.S. but
flourished under federal protections
and came off the endangered list in
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2007. Hunting them generally remains
illegal.
Dan Rolince, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service’s assistant special
agent in charge of law enforcement
for the region, said he expects the
new cases to be among the largest his
agency has handled as more charges
are added. The cases involve as many
as 250 eagles — most of them shot
— but span more than 40 species of
protected birds.
Rolince said buyers generally make
purchases through online contacts or
word of mouth, and that it’s difficult to
determine the size of the market.
The defendants include people from
Iowa, South Dakota and Wyoming.
One case accuses a Rapid City
family, Troy Fairbanks and his two
adult sons, who are enrolled members
of the Standing Rock and Lower Brule
Sioux tribes. The father ran a Native
American dance troupe called Buffalo
Dreamers that performed at venues
such as the Crazy Horse Memorial and
Custer State Park in the Black Hills.
But they also did a large trade in eagle
parts and feathers, according to their
indictment.
Fairbanks bragged to an unnamed
“cooperating individual” that he was
the “best feather man in the Midwest,”
boasting that 19 people in the Los
Angeles area wanted to buy from him,
his indictment says. Fairbanks also
claimed in May 2015 he could acquire
60 eagles by winter of that year.
By that point, with over a year of
deals worth thousands of dollars under
their belts, the “cooperating individual”
had gained the trust of Fairbanks, who
believed that person wasn’t a law
enforcement officer “because you
would have popped me by now,” his
indictment says.
Another group included Juan
Mesteth, an enrolled member of the
Oglala Sioux. An unnamed “confi-
dential informant” made contact with
Mesteth in the Pine Ridge area of
South Dakota.
After Mesteth and the informant
conducted a couple of deals, Mesteth
introduced the informant to his connec-
tions in Wyoming who could supply
whole carcasses and took them eagle
hunting, according to the indictment.
There are legitimate ways to obtain
eagle parts for religious purposes. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oper-
ates the National Eagle Repository to
provide Native Americans with eagle
carcasses, parts and feathers. Indians
can also inherit them within their fami-
lies or receive them as gifts.
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