Official Luthiers Forum!

Instrument makers, dealers, collectors, music store owners, wood and shell vendors, musicians, and anyone else in the music industry, you need to contact your Congressional reps immediately urging them to vote "YES" on HR 3210, which is designed to fix weaknesses in the Lacey Act (without weakening the Act's proven effectiveness in protecting endangered plants and animals). HR 3210 recently passed out of the Natural Resources Committee and now heads to the House floor for debate and a vote. And we now have to really turn up the volume and advocate for support of this bill. What's immediately needed is direct contact from all of us to any and all members of the US House of Representatives (Congress) and urge that they “vote YES for HR 3210”. Just do it, or quit complaining about government over-regulation...

All instructions for doing this are at: http://www.namm.org/publicaffairs. Here's an example of what the message needs to be:

" I’m the (title) of (name of business), a music business located in your district, and am contacting you to urge your support of H.R. 3210 (RELIEF Act), when it comes to the House floor in mid-July. This bipartisan bill is very important to my business and the jobs we provide because it addresses some unintended consequences of the 2008 amendments to the Lacey Act. H.R. 3210 makes several common sense improvements in the Lacey Act:
1) Grandfathers wood products assembled and processed prior to the 2008 amendment --- makes them legal to possess and sell.
2) Provides businesses whose products are seized for alleged violation of law the opportunity to a day in court to prove they are innocent.
3) Provides more clarity about which foreign laws could trigger a Lacey Act violation.
4) Creates incentives for better compliance and reduces unnecessary burdens on U.S. companies without compromising environmental protection.
5) H.R. 3210 does not undermine enforcement of the Lacey Act, encourage illegal logging, or protect those unscrupulous businesses who violate the law."

Copy this and pass along to anyone you know in the music industry. Thanks!

Good to know.
Thanks, Chuck.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Chuck,

I assume the answer is no, but can us Canuck's do anything useful?

Thanks for asking! You can't do anything directly, but you can encourage U.S. friends to contact their reps, by copying them on the above post and link.

1) Grandfathers wood products assembled and processed prior to the 2008 amendment --- makes them legal to possess and sell.

Does the above include the stashes of wood purchased before 2008 but just stacked for future use?

Hey, Chuck.
As for people like me who are only ameteur or hobbyist status accross the board (not just here at the OLF, but everywhere in the U.S.),
can we make a difference?
I may be the sole owner of what I have going, but I don`t foresee me being in business on a professional level for a few years.
This legislation has already affected everyone all the way down to our level.
I have a few years and considerable investment in getting things set up, (again, on an ametuer level), and have no desire to end up with dogs sniffing around my shop hunting for BRW or whatever else is on the list.
That would be one expensive weenie and marshmallow roast!
As Beaver Cleaver used to say, "Gee, Wally, what do we do now?" (Remember Leave it to Beaver?).
Coe Franklin

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

I met you over at the UMGF Chuck .
Thank you for all of the accurate info . It does help with separating the truth from the BS that is out there .
Keep up the great work .

Bump.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Yes, which is a hugely important point for almost all luthiers. Once their wood stash can be exempted so can any instruments made from it, which allows those instruments to legally move across U.S. borders.


What counts in Washington are how many people are heard from, regardless of their occupational status. When contacting your rep, simply mention how Lacey is making life difficult for you either personally or professionally. There are many more hobbyists than pros, and they have equal clout with government reps.

Message sent to my Congressman. Thanks for the headsup.

Mike

Will this bill solve the problem that Kevin Ryan has at Advanced Shell Technologies? HE can't sell to Canadian customers (for example) since he has to buy the $200 permit every single time. Not to mention the paperwork shuffle. I thought there was something in the works to make that permit long lived.

Mike

Thank the South American wood gods for THAT!

More importantly, thanks again to you, Chuck, for all your hard work on this, and for keeping us all informed. I did send an e-mail to my congressman per your instructions, and am going to encourage friends and family to do the same.

I hope others will do that as well, considering that Chuck has made it very quick and painless, and the stakes are so high.

A related "hypothetical" question - what about wood that has been in the US for years, but was purchased by its current owner between 2008 and current? Are those folks SOL?

It does nothing at all to help with getting shell (or an instrument containing even the tiniest amount of shell) across U.S. borders. USFWS refuses to make any exemptions for small or low-value shipments, and tells us the only way that would happen is to introduce a specific bill in Congress and then the Senate, just as is being done for the wood issues. They're not being unfriendly about it, but their past experience in making such exemptions is that a huge percentage of shipments would then suddenly become very low valued in order to get around the declaration requirements and fees -- even though they know these shipments have falsified values, they just don't have the manpower to deal with trying to sort out the bogus stuff. Understandable, but not good for Kevin, ourselves, or others who deal or use shell.

Is there any way to document pre-2008 proposed yet? I don't keep receipts.

Chuck,
Which law is the $200 permit supposed to be enforcing? I was under the impression that most of the shell that we use is not restricted. The presentation at the ASIA conference last year talked about wood so I don't know anything about shell.

Thanks Chuck for the work you and others have done on this issue. For those of you that haven't done this before or think it might be too time consuming, it took me all of 5 minutes. Go to the NAMM link, enter your zip code to find your representative, paste the letter in the email, edit and send.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

You can certainly write to American Congressmen and tell them about your concerns about commerce with the US being a Canadian luthier. After all, many of the problems stem from cross border traffic between the 2 countries. This is surely your business too!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Congressman Jim Cooper's office just called George Gruhn to tell him Republican leadership in the House decided that because they can't get enough support to pass the RELIEF Act it's been pulled. So, sincere thanks again to those of you who did make the effort to contact your reps...but to the vast majority of music industry people who have constantly refused to make their voices heard (and those forums which blocked discussion about this), when your wood or instruments wind up in trouble at the border you'll be getting exactly what you deserve. It's possible that after the elections a new effort for relief can be started again from scratch, but if the overall apathy level doesn't change there's not much point in wasting more time and funding...

That's sad news, Chuck. Thanks for letting us know. Perhaps if we are fortunate enough to see a significant change to the makeup of the House in the next election the bill could be reintroduced with better results.