mr. chairman , today i will vote in support of the amendment to the fy06 interior appropriations bill , offered by mr. rahall , that will prevent the secretary of the interior from expending funds to conduct sales of wild horses for the next fiscal year . 
that said , i am not categorically opposed to the sale of wild horses that live on federal lands and will seek to work with my colleagues to find a feasible solution to the federal land management challenges that underlie this issue . 
initially , let me indicate that i believe the process by which wild free-roaming horse and burro act was amended , with language inserted in an omnibus appropriations act without any public hearings or comment , was extremely inappropriate and that fact alone is grounds for congress to revisit this issue . 
i strongly believe that we must provide the bureau of land management ( blm ) and all federal land management agencies the tools and the resources they need to conserve our precious public resources . 
ultimately , this may mean granting horse-sale authority to the blm . 
i do not believe , however , that these wild horses should end up in slaughterhouses . 
the fact that forty-one wild horses were recently slaughtered at a foreign-owned processing facility , and an additional fifty-two barely escaped the same fate , clearly demonstrates that the current sale program is flawed , despite blm efforts to implement safeguards and pursue a measured approach in administering the sale authority . 
humane alternatives to slaughter obviously exist , and federal agencies already have the authority to carry out such humane actions as adoption , sterilization , relocation , and placement with qualified individuals and organizations . 
federal land managers may simply lack the resources they need to carry out these alternatives , but the answers to such questions are currently unclear . 
i urge chairman pombo of the house committee on resources to hold hearings on this matter so that we can ascertain the status of the blm 's management authorities and resources . 
i pledge to work with him to find solutions to this issue . 
in the meantime , because i believe that a one-year moratorium on blm 's sale authority for wild horses is needed to allow this debate , i offer my support to the rahall amendment . 
