Endangered Species Act Changes Pass House

Although we oppose the bill, we understand the motivation behind it. Traditional environmental groups have sometimes misused the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to stop good projects. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) just got payback by getting the House to pass the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (TESRA) by a vote of 229-193 on Sept 29, 2005. His victory will be short lived though because it will die in the Senate.

According to Chairman Pombo and his cosponsor Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), TESRA will update, modernize and fix long-outstanding problems of the ESA of 1973 by (1) focusing on species recovery (2) providing incentives (3) increasing openness and accountability (4) strengthening scientific standards (5) creating bigger roles for state and local governments (6) protecting private property owners and (7) eliminating dysfunctional critical habitat designations. (More)