At an Interior Appropriations subcommittee markup, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), urged his colleagues to help him find a bi-partisan solution to the overpopulation of wild horses in the West.
“If you care about these animals like I do, we can’t just continue with what’s happening here,” Stewart said. “By the BLM’s own estimate it’s going to cost a billion dollars to care for these [Wild Horses] in the next few years. There are more than 67,000 of them now, and they expect that number to double in the next 4 years. We could throw our hands up in the air and say ‘this is too hard, we can’t fix it’, but that seems unacceptable. We are hoping we can find some bipartisan agreement and do something meaningful. “
Stewart also introduced the Wild Horse Oversight Act, which would allow states to take over the management of wild horses and burros.
