This was a vote on Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) that would have eliminated $7.4 million in funding for the U.S. Forest Service International Programs (which promote forest preservations and sustainable management of forests around the world). This amendment was offered to legislation funding the federal government (such legislation is known as a “continuing resolution, or “CR”) through September 2011, and cutting $61 billion in federal funding for many government programs.

Pompeo urged support for his amendment: “This program started out a long time ago to provide funds for saving the Brazilian rainforest. But like so many programs that had good intentions, it's morphed, it's morphed into something terribly different. Just this past year, this program funded field trips for students in Mexico to follow the migration of monarch butterflies. It funded research in China to protect the Panda habitat and make sure that we didn't have the infestation of forest pests in China. I think the Chinese can fund themselves if someone thinks that's a worthy task. Last year, the International Forestry Program funded a study on the declining hummingbird populations in the western United States, Canada, and Mexico.”

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) opposed the amendment: “One of the things that disturbs me most is the way that a program has been described that allows students to interact with one another and learn about forestry management, biology, and how we are interconnected in this world. There are no Mexican students that go on field trips here in the United States, but there is an exchange of classrooms in Canada and the United States and in Mexico where teachers online follow the migration of the monarch. Students learn about, yes, insects. They learn about the trees that are important to them, and they learn biology. These are very, very important programs. They should not be maligned.”

The House rejected this amendment by a vote of 171-256. Voting “yea” were 168 Republicans and 3 Democrats. 186 Democrats and 70 Republicans voted “nay.” As a result, the House rejected an amendment that would have eliminated $7.4 million in funding for the U.S. Forest Service International Programs.