Westerman sponsors legislation to redo Endangered Species Act

WASHINGTON — A group of House Republicans unveiled a package of bills Thursday that would make sweeping changes to the Endangered Species Act.

One of them, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., would make it easier for the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior to derail environmental petitions that he deems “frivolous.”

Another would make it easier for the interior secretary to de-list threatened or endangered species.

Other bills seek to increase state involvement, promote voluntary conservation efforts and limit attorney’s fees that are awarded as a result of Endangered Species Act litigation.

The legislation was highlighted Thursday afternoon at a news conference organized by the Congressional Western Caucus, an organization that was founded to combat “undue federal interference with rural, agricultural, timber, water, mining and hunting values,” its website states.

Westerman and several other Republican lawmakers attended.

U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., the caucus’s chairman, described the legislation as “a bipartisan package of nine bills.”

But when asked to identify Democrats who favor the package, caucus members named only one: U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.

According to The Hill, a Washington political newspaper, Schrader said he supports two of the nine bills.

At the news conference, Republicans portrayed the existing environmental law as a failure.

While grizzly bears are thriving in Yellowstone and gray wolves have recovered in the Northern Rockies, most conservation efforts have been failures, Republican leaders say.

Supporters of the new legislation said it would “modernize” the Endangered Species Act, bolstering recovery efforts, while saving tax dollars and boosting the economy.

The 1973 law, which passed when Westerman was in elementary school, hasn’t kept up with the times, he said.

“We have an eight-track law in a Spotified world. It’s time that we get this Endangered Species Act up to speed and have it accomplish the purposes that it was originally intended for,” the lawmaker from Hot Springs said.

Westerman’s 18-page bill would “provide expedited means for discharging petitions” when there is a backlog, the legislation states.

Under the Endangered Species Act, anyone can submit a petition seeking to have a species listed, delisted or reclassified.

According to a summary of the legislation from the Western Caucus, strict timelines contained in the law cause difficulties for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, leaving the agency vulnerable if sued.

“This bill reforms that petition process, allowing the

Secretary to declare a ‘petition backlog’ when too many frivolous petitions stack up and [the agency] becomes vulnerable to lawsuit,” the summary states.

Under the measure, “petitions designed to jam the system and secure unwarranted species listings are automatically discharged during a backlog.”

Thursday, Westerman said some environmental groups are improperly exploiting the timeline to advance their agenda.

The bill, he said, would fix the problem.

“When all these petitions come into Fish and Wildlife, instead of having to rush through and meet the current law … it allows a pause to be put on the process so that they can analyze each of these species and determine if they’re truly endangered or if it’s just somebody trying to move a political agenda,” he said.

In written statements, environmental groups panned Westerman’s proposal.

“The problem isn’t a backlog of petitions, it’s a backlog of species that desperately need help and a government that hasn’t moved fast enough to prevent their extinction,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity.