US House Backs Changes in Endangered Species Act
Date: 30-Sep-05
Country: USA
Author: Joanne Kenen
The bill was approved by a 229-193 vote. The White House supports the legislation, although it does want some changes. The Senate has not yet taken up companion legislation and is unlikely to accept such drastic revisions in the law, originally enacted in 1973, so some compromises are likely if the bill is ever to become law.
Many Republicans and Democrats alike want to update and streamline the current law, better defining the scientific standards that will apply to protecting endangered species and trying to reduce the number of lawsuits that arise. But they disagree over many of the specifics.
The bill authored by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, a California Republican, includes more protections and payments for property owners and developers. Critics say it would rely too much on voluntary conservation efforts by the private sector.
The Pombo bill would address property owners' and business groups' complaints and set up a system for government payments when land cannot be developed due to an endangered species. It also eases some limitations on certain pesticides.
"Private property owners have to be part of the solution," said Pombo, adding that 90 percent of endangered species live on privately-owned land.
Most Democrats and some moderate Rep1ublicans backed an alternative bill that they said would do more to ensure that new "species recovery plans" protect the wildlife.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement that the Pombo bill would lead to more extinctions. "It defies common sense to expect an endangered species to recover if the place it calls home is converted to condos or paved for a parking lot."
Democratic critics of the Pombo bill said current law has helped protect the Florida manatee, the California condor and the bald eagle, and that the bill would threaten that progress.
"This bill is not about fixing the Endangered Species Act, it's about gutting it," said Massachusetts Democrat James McGovern.
But Pombo and his allies said the current law does not work very well and that most species that were declared endangered, remain endangered. Several said priorities were so skewed that the Delhi sands flower-loving fly was given more importance in one California town than construction of a needed hospital.