Urge Congress to support recovering America’s wildlife
Many leading experts are warning that the sixth mass extinction is currently underway.
The proposal would fund state-level wildlife conservation but would take money from other conservation programs and weaken the Endangered Species Act.
A flawed wildlife bill, albeit one introduced with certain good intentions, passed the House Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday April 16. The measure by Chairman Bruce Westerman (Arkansas) would authorize a wildlife conservation program at $320 million per year. Most of the funds would go to state wildlife agencies.
It was a party-line vote, with those Republicans who voted supporting it, and the Democrats who voted opposing it.
If it’s money for wildlife, what’s not to like? The bill includes the following problems:
I have a couple of thoughts on all this.
Even though we don’t support his bill due to the problems mentioned above, we’re glad to see Chairman Westerman engaged on the topic of how to protect wildlife in the U.S. and how to keep wildlife populations from dropping so low they need Endangered Species Act protections.
Without major changes, I don’t see Chairman Westerman’s bill passing. But there is a bill that could fare much better and did pass the House in the last congress. It’s the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.
As of now, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is a Senate bill and it’s bipartisan. (We hope to see it introduced in the House soon.) It would provide dedicated funding, i.e. not left to the ebbs and flows of the annual appropriations process, to the states each year at $1.3 billion, plus $100 million for tribal wildlife conservation. And it doesn’t alter the Endangered Species Act.
We’d like to see Congress spend its time and energy on passing the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.
Many leading experts are warning that the sixth mass extinction is currently underway.
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