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Wildlands & Wildlife:
Threatened & Endangered Species Recovery Act

Our Position: oppose
Bill Number: HR3824
Sponsor: Richard Pombo
Legislative Session: 2006

Crafted by House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA), this bill would gut the 30-year old Endangered Species Act, America's safety net for fish and wildlife at the edge of extinction.

The bill eliminates habitat protection measures for fish and wildlife facing extinction, creates an exemption for the approval of potentially dangerous pesticides and establishes a new entitlement program for developers and polluters. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), implementation of the Pombo legislation will cost the U.S. taxpayer $2.7 billion over the next five years.

The Endangered Species Act enjoys a proven track record of success. Ninety-nine percent of all the fish, plants and wildlife ever conserved under the Endangered Species Act have been saved from becoming lost forever, including the bald eagle and the grizzly bear.

This attempt to rewrite the landmark law is just the latest attempt by Rep. Pombo to undermine America's bedrock environmental protections. In addition to his assault on the Endangered Species Act, he's also working to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act, and pushing controversial measures to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off America's coasts, and sell off National Parks to private interests.

Status

The bill passed the House on September 29, 2005 by a vote of 229-193.  It has not reached the Senate for a vote.

Contact

Sean Cosgrove
Senior Washington Representative
National Forests and Endangered Species
sean.cosgrove@sierraclub.org
202-547-1141

Background

Ever since last fall when Rep. Pombo’s Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (HR 3824), narrowly passed the House, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman, Jim Inhofe (R-OK), has called for the introduction of a Senate Endangered Species Act bill. Earlier this year Sen. Inhofe said that if the Wildlife subcommittee doesn’t produce a bill by the end of March he would introduce his own.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), chairman of the Fisheries and Wildlife Subcommittee, is leading the negotiations with Democrats and the Committee’s lone Independent Sen. Jeffords of Vermont to craft an ESA re-authorization bill. His goal is to craft a bi-partisan bill that actually protects fish and wildlife.

Negotiations continued for several months as the pressure built and the tension mounted. Sierra Club and our partner organizations worked hard to educate our members and the public about the threats to the ESA and the need for better implementation of the law and more funding. With Inhofe’s self-imposed March deadline passed and negotiations headed into the seventh month a bi-partisan bill may be an elusive goal. In one recent news story Sen, Chafee said that Senate negotiations may be close to being dead but offered, "We’ll keep working. I want to keep the door open a crack."

Chafee’s comment is good news to those who are working to maintain a strong ESA and don’t want to see any Senate bill move forward since it would be conferenced with the very bad Pombo extinction bill. Still we must remain vigilant for a lot can happen between now and the end of the Congressional session.