Congress Is Quietly Eroding the Endangered Species Act
In the past two decades, Republicans in Congress have offered up more than 378 bills—45 in 2018 alone—to seriously weaken the Endangered Species Act. Most of those plans died before they got past the House Committee on Natural Resources, which needs to sign off before the bills come to a vote. But last week, while front pages and Twitter feeds spilled over with news of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the committee voted along party lines and passed five bills that could devastate protections for endangered species.
The committee head, Utah Republican Rob Bishop, has said in no uncertain terms that he’d love nothing more than to completely invalidate the ESA. But serious attacks on the law have historically been defeated by both Republicans and Democrats because the act is overwhelmingly popular. About 74 percent of American conservatives and 90 percent of liberals support it. None of the five bills will get a vote before elections in November, and it’s worth remembering there’s a chance Congress will look a lot different after that. But with the committee’s stamp, the ESA is in more danger than it has ever been.
What Would the Bills Do?
The House committee called the bills bipartisan, but only one is sponsored by a Democrat. That came from Montana’s Collin Peterson, whose bill would delist gray wolves in Wyoming and the western Great Lakes region. Protections for wolves there have gone back and forth in federal courts for years, and Peterson’s bill would essentially override any judgment and open hunting on the animals for good.
Another bill deals with breeding permits for non-native endangered species and moving these animals over state lines. But it’s the last three that could have the most wide-ranging, long-lasting impacts. One would make the government factor in the economic cost of protecting plants or animals before listing them; another would make it harder for people to sue when they feel the ESA has been abused; and the last would give reports submitted by local and state governments the same weight as those offered by federal studies, which may seem harmless, except that these reports can contain little or no science.
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