[MPWG] Lawmakers announce new push to change Endangered Species Act
Sonya
msredsonya at earthlink.net
Mon Feb 14 02:26:47 CST 2005
Salon.com
Lawmakers announce new push to change Endangered Species Act
Feb. 11, 2005 | Washington -- Four leading GOP House members and
senators announced a joint effort Thursday to rewrite the Endangered
Species Act to toughen up habitat and scientific provisions.
Environmentalists immediately criticized the plan as the latest attempt
to gut the law.
The lawmakers said it was the first time members of the House and Senate
had banded together at the beginning of a congressional session to amend
the 1973 act. Previous attempts to change the law have failed, but they
said this time they hoped to produce a single Endangered Species Act
reauthorization bill that could be introduced in both chambers.
"We've been working on this issue for a long time," said House Resources
Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif. "And to have the opportunity
now to sit down and work across the Capitol and try to come up with
legislation that does move the ball forward and begins to modernize and
update the Endangered Species Act is extremely important."
Joining Pombo were Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.; Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho;
and Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I. Chafee, among the Senate's most moderate
Republicans, is a newcomer to the issue who chairs the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee's subcommittee on fisheries,
wildlife and water.
The lawmakers said they had no specific legislative language yet, but
listed goals including increased involvement by states, more incentives
for private landowners, and strengthening scientific reviews before
species are listed or critical habitat is designated.
They contended the law now creates unreasonable regulatory hurdles for
property owners while failing to help many species.
"Overall we believe that the Endangered Species Act can be less
contentious and more effective," Crapo said.
Environmentalists said the act works as written.
"For 30 years the Endangered Species Act has been serving as a safety
net for species on the brink of extinction, and there can be absolutely
no doubt the act is working, and it's one of the most popular laws in
the land," said Susan Holmes, senior legislative representative at
Earthjustice.
"I think if you look at the efforts that we have seen so far from
Congressman Pombo, from Greg Walden, these efforts have been all-out
attacks on the Endangered Species Act," Holmes added.
Pombo's committee passed two bills last year to amend the law. One would
have changed how critical habitat is designated by requiring that such a
designation be "practicable." The other, written by Walden, would have
created a peer review board, chosen by the interior secretary, to vet
scientific information on a species before it could be listed as
endangered.
Neither bill got a vote on the House floor, and earlier attempts to
amend the law also went nowhere, including a 1997 effort that cleared a
Senate committee. Chafee said that bill, which would have given private
landowners incentives to help preserve species, would be a good starting
point this time around.
Although President Bush has handed Congress a busy agenda to work on
over the next two years, and some in Congress may not be eager to take
on a controversial fight over the Endangered Species Act, the lawmakers
said Thursday they thought they could get it done.
"If we come together I guarantee you we'll get the floor time," Walden
said.
More than 1,800 plants and animals are now listed as threatened or
endangered. The Fish and Wildlife Service says about 40 have been taken
off the list over the years - fewer than half of those because they
recovered, and the others because they went extinct or for technical
reasons.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2005/02/11/species/print.html
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