House lawmakers ask Interior to halt ESA rewrite PDF Print E-mail
A group of House lawmakers asked the Bush administration today to stop its rewrite of Endangered Species Act regulations.

Seventy-six members, most of them Democrats, told Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in a letter to "reconsider any attempts" to change the law until he seeks the advice of congressional committees with ESA jurisdiction.

A similar letter from Senate Democrats last month asked for details on the "troubling" ESA rewrite effort. And members of the House Natural Resources panel blasted Interior officials at a hearing last week for proposed rule changes that they said could undermine key protections for species.

The administration can move forward with its regulations without congressional approval, but an angry Congress could put future work on the regulations on hold by blocking funding.

Interior has been under fire since draft regulatory changes became public in March. That draft would scale back federal power to list species or prevent disruptive activities in their habitat.

Fish and Wildlife Service Chief Dale Hall said they have thrown out those proposals and are drafting new regulations but have kept the details on what they could include close to the vest.

The letter today acknowledges that the new regulations may differ from the draft proposal but says they still have concerns that Interior may attempt "significant changes" without further congressional involvement.

"To be clear, we object to any attempt to rewrite the Endangered Species Act that does not involve the United States Congress," the letter states. "Broad changes to a law that is such a cornerstone of conservation in America deserve and require the full deliberation of Congress, not its exclusion from the process."

Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), Jim Moran (D-Va.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) were the lead authors of the letter, which is signed by half the Democrats on the Interior Appropriations panel.

Hinchey also sent a letter to Interior Appropriations Committee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) asking him to include language in the spending bill that would limit the administration's ability to overhaul ESA (Greenwire, May 1).
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