Action Alert: NACD Action Alert: FY2010 Appropriations (February 20, 2009) ) - National Association of Conservation Districts

NACD's mission is to serve conservation districts by providing national leadership and a unified voice for natural resource conservation.

Action Alert

Action Requested
Date: October 26, 2009

Subject: Support H.R. 3524, The Family Farm Preservation and Conservation Estate Tax Act

Urgent Action Requested

Contact your Representative in the U.S. House and ask for his or her support of H.R. 3524.

Background

Estate tax laws are under review in Congress ahead of the scheduled expiration of current estate tax provisions in 2010. One such piece of legislation is H.R. 3524, the Family Farm Preservation and Conservation Estate Tax Act, sponsored by Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA). NACD supports estate tax reform that exempts qualified family farms and ranches from estate and death taxes. NACD has endorsed this legislation and we urge you to contact your Members of Congress in support of estate tax reform.

H.R. 3524 would amend the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from the gross estate the value of property used by a descendant and the descendant’s family as a farm for farming purposes, including working woodlands, and certain qualified conservation easements. The bill would also impose a recapture tax if such farmland is sold outside the decedent's family or is no longer used for farming purposes or if a qualified conservation easement is likewise sold or used in violation of the terms of such easement.

Congress is considering tax issues and we need to make sure estate tax issues, like those addressed in H.R. 3524 are included in their discussions. Broad support for H.R. 3524 is needed to continue discussions on Capitol Hill.

Contacts

Contact your Representative today and ask that he or she co-sponsor or support H.R. 3524. If they already are a co-sponsor, be sure to thank them for their support of such a critical issue for conservation of natural resources on our nation’s farm and forest lands.

The current co-sponsors to H.R. 3524 are provided below:

Rep Alexander, Rodney [LA-5]	Rep Austria, Steve [OH-7]
Rep Bishop, Rob [UT-1]	Rep Calvert, Ken [CA-44]
Rep Capps, Lois [CA-23]	Rep Cardoza, Dennis A. [CA-18]
Rep Cole, Tom [OK-4]	Rep Conaway, K. Michael [TX-11]
Rep Costa, Jim [CA-20]	Rep Cuellar, Henry [TX-28]
Rep Davis, Artur [AL-7]	Rep Eshoo, Anna G. [CA-14]
Rep Farr, Sam [CA-17]	Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51]
Rep Goodlatte, Bob [VA-6]	Rep Heinrich, Martin [NM-1]
Rep Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie [SD]	Rep Inglis, Bob [SC-4]
Rep Kind, Ron [WI-3] - 10/1/2009	Rep Kingston, Jack [GA-1]
Rep Kratovil, Frank, Jr. [MD-1]	Rep Lummis, Cynthia M. [WY]
Rep Markey, Betsy [CO-4]	Rep Massa, Eric J. J. [NY-29]
Rep McCarthy, Kevin [CA-22]	Rep McNerney, Jerry [CA-11]
Rep Michaud, Michael H. [ME-2]	Rep Olson, Pete [TX-22]
Rep Paul, Ron [TX-14]	Rep Perriello, Thomas S.P. [VA-5]
Rep Poe, Ted [TX-2]	Rep Putnam, Adam H. [FL-12]
Rep Radanovich, George [CA-19]	Rep Salazar, John T. [CO-3]
Rep Schock, Aaron [IL-18]	Rep Thompson, Bennie G. [MS-2]
Rep Upton, Fred [MI-6]	Rep Wittman, Robert J. [VA-1]

Representatives can be contacted through telephone, email and web contact information. This information can be accessed at the U.S. House of Representatives website:

U.S. House of Representatives: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

You can also contact your Representative by calling the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

(Please remember when contacting Members of Congress that use of federally owned equipment is prohibited. This includes fax machines, computers, email or any other method which involves federal property)

Report Back
We rely on your feedback to know which Representatives have been contacted, what questions or feedback they have, and where additional information may be needed. Please report your contacts to jeremy-peters@nacdnet.org.