The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“H.R. 4315, THE 21ST CENTURY ENDANGERED SPECIES TRANSPARENCY ACT” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1304 on Aug. 1, 2014.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
H.R. 4315, THE 21ST CENTURY ENDANGERED SPECIES TRANSPARENCY ACT
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HON. EARL BLUMENAUER
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I voted against H.R. 4315, a package of bills that would weaken the process by which the Administration makes Endangered Species Act (ESA) determinations.
While H.R. 4315 is nothing more than a partisan talking point, it does raise an important debate about the need to reform our regulations to make them more performance-based. Instead of establishing specific rules that tell stakeholders how to achieve specific outcomes, our regulations should instead identify exactly what we want and allow for multiple paths and discretion for achieving set outcomes. By holding local governments, states, and the private sector accountable, while allowing for flexibility, we can reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and make our regulations more efficient and effective without undercutting public and environmental protections.
The ESA has a clear intention of protecting threatened wildlife species and from 1973 to 2013, it has prevented extinction for 99% of species under its protection. H.R. 4315 does not improve the process, and only moves us away from achieving further wildlife protection and recovery goals.
While framed as a way to roll back red tape, this bill instead creates additional layers of bureaucracy through burdensome and unnecessary reporting requirements on the details of all ESA lawsuit expenditures made by the Department of Interior, the Forest Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Bonneville, Western Area, Southwestern and Southeastern Power Administrations. Given that our federal agencies are already resource-constrained, these requirements will only distract from the charge to protect threatened and endangered species.
The bill also downgrades the quality of science used in the ESA determination process, by defining all data provided by a State, Tribal or county government as the ``best available'' data without any review of whether or not it actually is the best data.
This legislation does not further the important goals of species recovery efforts. Congress should work to reform regulation in a way that helps agencies, Tribes, local government and private industry increases performance measures, not create additional bureaucracies and waste limited public resources. I oppose this legislation, yet another in a long series of bills passed this Congress to undermine important environmental protections. I was disappointed to see it pass.
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