Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Friday, July 8, 2011
House Appropriations Subcommittee Attempts to Gut the Endangered Species Act

Controversial Spending Bill Takes First Step Toward Becoming Law
Contact: Taylor Jones (303) 573-4898 x1159

Washington, DC – July 8. In the latest of a series of attacks on imperiled wildlife inCongress, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment andRelated Agencies voted in favor of appropriations legislation that wouldprohibit species listings and habitat conservation under the Endangered SpeciesAct. The bill now goes to the full House Appropriations Committee forconsideration.

House Republicans propose to fund the Fish and Wildlife Service$1,099,055,000for fiscal year 2012 ($314 million below the amount appropriated infiscal year 2011 and $506 million below the amount requested by PresidentObama) only if those funds are not used to list imperiled species asendangered or threatened or designate critical habitat pursuant to theEndangered Species Act. The bill would allow funds to be used for delisting a speciesor downlisting it from endangered to threatened, but not for reclassifying athreatened species as endangered.

“I’m disgusted,” said Taylor Jones, Endangered SpeciesAdvocate for WildEarth Guardians. “Thisis a blatant, wide-reaching attempt to strip away the environmental protectionsthat safeguard our country’s natural resources. The House of Representatives is not solving budget problems– they are creating environmental problems. And it will cost us in human health, clean air and water,and biodiversity.”

Along with restrictions on funding for imperiled species,the bill would prohibit judicial review of any decision to delist wolves inWyoming and potentially any state in the Great Lakes wolf range. The bill would also slash funding forthe Environmental Protection Agency, the Land and Water ConservationFund, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, and the Drinking Water StateRevolving Fund. It includes legislativeriders that would relax greenhouse gas regulations and restrictions onmountaintop removal, pesticide pollution in rivers and streams, and coal ash. It would also allow uranium mining inthe Grand Canyon.

“Given the backlog of hundreds of imperiled species waitingfor federal protection, the Service needs moreresources to combat the extinction crisis, not less,” continued Jones. “Wedemand that the current policy of giving handouts to polluters and specialinterests be replaced by a commitment to following sound science and protectingour natural heritage.”

Listing species under the Endangered Species Act has provenvery effective in preventing species extinction. Over 99 percent of plants andanimals listed under the act persist today. Scientists estimate that 227species would have gone extinct if not for ESA listing. Listed species alsobenefit from the development of federally funded recovery plans and criticalhabitat, if designated.

Download a copy of the Appropriations Bill for Interior andEnvironment here.