Senators to Zinke: Enforce Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Today, Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and 8 of their colleagues on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke requesting that he reconsider the Department of the Interior’s reinterpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) to exclude liability for industries that kill birds. The Senators requested that the Secretary continue to fully enforce this foundational conservation law to protect hundreds of migratory bird species across the country.

Defenders of Wildlife Senior Vice President, Bob Dreher, issued the following statement: 

“Thank you to Senators Tom Carper and Cory Booker for their leadership to uphold the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and its prohibition against the unpermitted take of birds. The United States and other nations have protected migratory birds through international treaties and laws for a hundred years. Now the Trump administration’s actions threaten to undermine the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by exempting industry from liability when their activities unintentionally – but predictably – kill birds. On the centennial of the Act, Congress and the Trump administration should do everything they can to protect migratory birds instead of letting industry off the hook for unmitigated bird deaths.”