Legal Protections for Wildlife in Jeopardy as House Holds Oversight Meeting

Representative Harriet Hageman (R-WY), Chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, will tomorrow hold her first hearing of the year, solely focused on conservation laws critical to the protection of imperiled wildlife. The hearing, entitled “Evaluating the Implementation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act,” is expected to set the stage for Rep. Hageman to push forward an anti-wildlife agenda. 

“Rep. Hageman is no friend of wildlife having sponsored and cosponsored over a dozen anti-wildlife bills last Congress,” Robert Dewey, Defenders of Wildlife vice president of government relations said. “We are highly skeptical that her hearing to evaluate the implementation of our nation’s bedrock conservation laws to protect imperiled wildlife is being conducted with their best interest in mind.”  

The MMPA and ESA are both critical laws with excellent track records of protecting imperiled species. Since the enactment of the MMPA, no marine mammal species has gone extinct in American waters and more than 95% of the species listed under the ESA are still with us today. 

“The pattern of attacks on the ESA we saw in the last Congress is continuing in the 119th Congress with more than a dozen anti-wildlife bills already introduced in the House, including one by Rep. Hageman to delist Yellowstone grizzlies,” Dewey stated. “We encourage all pro-wildlife Members to stand up for the ESA and MMPA and against an agenda that will only push species at the brink of extinction over the edge.” 

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