Hay is For Horses... $90K Worth of Hay, Dept. of Interior

    In April 2013, I wrote a post for The Weekly Standard about a Department of The Interior $6 million contract for helicopter services related to the Wild Horse and Burro program run by the agency.  Part of that program involves capturing and corralling some of those animals for the Adopt-a-Horse program.  And based on another recently posted contract, those horses are hungry.
    There's an old expression that begins "Hay is for horses," and boy, is it ever.  The contract is for almost $90,000, which is apparently the going rate for 200 tons of alfalfa hay:

    A document accompanying the notice gives some background on the program:

 As resource conditions and other factors warrant, excess wild horses and burro [free roaming on public lands] are removed from the public lands and placed in facilities for preparation to be placed in private maintenance through the Adopt-A-Horse program... The Wild Horse and Burro program Southeastern States Office conducts approximately 12 satellite adoptions throughout the southeastern United States. The SSFO is also responsible for running the BLM Eastern States/Piney Woods Wild Horse and Burro Holding Facility. The facility is responsible for maintaining (feeding, veterinary care, etc.) approximately 150 animals.

    The award was granted only seven days after the initial solicitation appeared, so it's not clear how many bids the government received, and the "interested vendors" list requires a login. And how long does it take 150 wild horses and burros to chew their way through 200 tons of hay?  Since the last contract ($43,775 for 100 tons) was just awarded on July 31, 2013, late summer 2014 may be the last straw.

Feds Sign $6M Helicopter Contract for 'Wild Horse and Burro' Program

    As the sequester bore down on Washington, the dire warnings from the Obama administration gave the impression that wild horses couldn't drag another dime out of the treasury for a whole host of vital government services.  Aircraft carrier refueling, the Head Start program, and White House tours were among the high profile victims.  However, as it turned out, wild horses, with a little help from burros, managed to drag $6,000,000 out of the taxpayers' wallets for Helicopter Flight Services two weeks after the sequester went into effect.  The same government website that posted the contracts for Vice President Biden's London and Paris hotel costs and Paris limo costs has the details:

    Related documents show that the purpose of the contract is to provide

on call helicopter flight services to support transportation of personnel and/or cargo in support of natural resource missions along with other administrative and related activities as directed by the Government in support of the Wild Horse and Burro (WHB).

When asked for clarification on the contract, Joshua Carter of the Interior Department replied via email:

The contract awarded to Skyhawk Helicopter Services is an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity type contract, which means that while the Government knows they will need these services at some point over the course of the next year, we don't know exactly when we'll need them nor do we know exactly how much of the service.  Actual services will be ordered via the issuance of task orders for specific amounts and timeframe.  The $6M figure is the contract ceiling meaning that the total of all orders issued over the life of the contract will not exceed $6M.  So while the contract is considered a $6M contract, the likelihood of the actual workload reaching that amount is minimal.

    According to a Bureau of Land Management budget document, a total of $76,758,000 was included for the National Wild Horse and Burro Program in the Fiscal Year 2012 continuing resolution passed by Congress and signed by the president.

    Days after the sequester took effect, a two-day Wild Horse & Burro Advisory Board Meeting was held at the Sheraton Oklahoma City Hotel in Oklahoma and included discussions on Population Growth Suppression, Ecotourism, and Herd Area Repopulation.

Note: This article first appeared at The Weekly Standard (minus the photo.)