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.
“WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND ANTI-TRAFFICKING” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3786 on May 8, 2018.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND ANTI-TRAFFICKING
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo) for 5 minutes.
Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the bipartisan Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act of 2018.
I want to first recognize my good friend and Republican colead on this important legislation, Congressman Don Young from Alaska, dean of the House and a longtime conservation leader. I want to thank him for his support as the original cosponsor.
I also want to thank the leading wildlife and marine conservation, whistleblower, and animal welfare groups that have endorsed the bill to date. The Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act will strengthen enforcement against poachers, traffickers, and the global trade in illegal wildlife and seafood products.
Wildlife trafficking; poaching; and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing rank among the top global crimes, generating billions in illicit profits each year for transnational criminal organizations and extremist groups. In tackling the global wildlife trafficking trade as our bill does, Congress can help to conserve iconic wildlife and cut off illicit financing for groups responsible for human rights abuses, political corruption, and even terrorism worldwide.
Our bipartisan bill includes enforcement provisions passed by the House in November of 2015, by voice vote, which will empower Federal prosecutors and law enforcement to combat the global wildlife trafficking trade. Importantly, the bill also recognizes the critical role that whistleblowers can play in providing the actionable intelligence needed to prosecute wildlife poachers and take down trafficking rings.
By incentivizing whistleblowers on wildlife trafficking and related crimes to come forward, Congress can increase enforcement and leverage existing Federal agency resources and our legal system at no cost to the taxpayers. Our bill also includes several provisions that will support wildlife conservation worldwide by authorizing a comprehensive international wildlife conservation program within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; also, stationing law enforcement and agency personnel in wildlife trafficking-focused countries identified by the State Department; and providing dedicated funding for wildlife, marine mammal, sea turtle, and shark conservation at no expense to the taxpayers.
I am especially pleased that our bill provides for marine wildlife species which often go overlooked but are increasingly targeted by poachers, traffickers, and illegal fishing. The bill also expands the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund to make the U.S. territories eligible for funding and to provide for the conservation of endangered freshwater turtles and tortoises. Many of the world's freshwater turtle and tortoise species could become extinct in the next few decades, and all sea turtles found in our Nation's territorial waters are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. territories are home to numerous marine turtle species, including the endangered hawksbill and the green sea turtles native to Guam and the western Pacific Ocean. Lastly, the bill builds upon the success of two laws which I sponsored: the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 and the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act of 2015.
Together with Congressman Young, we have put together a comprehensive bill that advances wildlife conservation and continues American leadership in tackling wildlife trafficking and the global trade in illegal wildlife and seafood products. And we do all this with existing Federal resources, at no cost to the taxpayers.
I urge all Members of the House to join me and Congressman Young in cosponsoring the Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act of 2018.
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