Western Caucus Members Push Anti-Endangered Species Act, Wildlife Extinction Package

The Congressional Western Caucus introduced a package of 19 anti-wildlife, anti-public lands, anti-Endangered Species Act (ESA) bills today. This Extinction Package would severely weaken implementation of the ESA, and protections for imperiled species and important habitat. Proposed ESA changes include codifying regulations damaging to the ESA announced last month by the Trump administration. 

Last week, Reps. Grijalva (D-AZ), Dingell (D-MI) and Beyer (D-VA), and Sen. Udall (D-NM), introduced bills to reverse the Trump administration’s attack on ESA and protect endangered and threatened species. The bills push back against the Trump administration’s new regulations that will eliminate key protections for threatened species, weaken bedrock consultation requirements, allow for burdensome and inappropriate cost-benefit analyses in the ESA’s listing process and much more. On September 19, more than 1,600 scientists called for conservation funding to protect endangered and threatened species.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, issued the following statement:

“Three billion birds have perished since the 1970s and nearly 1 million species are currently threatened with extinction worldwide. Our planet is facing an extinction crisis of epic proportion. Yet Western Caucus members in Congress have launched an all-out assault on the Endangered Species Act, our nation’s most successful tool in protecting imperiled species. Instead of trying to destroy this visionary law, all members of Congress should be working to fully fund the Act so it can achieve its full potential to protect biodiversity and save species.”