Washington, D.C. -Today, Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee Peter DeFazio (D-OR) issued the following statement in response to the Republican Report on the Endangered Species Act:
“As with a number of issues before the committee, there’s the potential for balanced, reasonable compromises to modernize the Endangered Species Act based on the best available science. But unfortunately this Majority does not seem interested in such an approach. If this so-called report issued by a partisan task force is any indication, we will likely spend time debating legislation that will be cast as ‘common sense’ reforms, but will actually gut a law that has prevented the extinction of iconic American animals such as the bald eagle and the gray wolf. We still have a lot of work to do and there is no appetite to overturn the ESA. Because these ‘reforms’ will only appeal to the radical, tea-party wing partisans, it will go nowhere in the Senate."
