ENDANGERED SPECIES: House GOP float 4 bills to reform landmark law
Emily Yehle, E&E reporter
E&E: Friday, March 28, 2014
Republicans unveiled four bills yesterday to reform the Endangered Species Act, focusing mostly on making data and spending more transparent.
The bills draw from recommendations in a 64-page report Republicans released last month. Democrats and conservationists have characterized the report as a partisan effort to gut the law rather than reform it (Greenwire, Feb. 4).
But House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) pledged to turn the report into piecemeal legislation. The bills introduced yesterday mark the beginning of that effort.
"These are very simple, straightforward, and common sense bills and provide a good starting point as we begin the legislative process for improving the Endangered Species Act," Hastings said in a statement. "The bills are, by design, narrowly focused and something that both Republicans and Democrats can support."
Hastings' bill, H.R. 4315, would require federal agencies to publicly release data used to make listing decisions. Currently, some data are kept private even when the research was federally funded, due to laws that give researchers proprietary rights.
H.R. 4316, from Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), would require the Fish and Wildlife Service to report the funds expended to respond to ESA-related lawsuits, along with the number of employees dedicated to litigation and the attorney fees paid out to successful litigants.
Rep. Randy Neugebauer's (R-Texas) bill, H.R. 4317, would require the federal government to include data from states and tribes in its consideration of the "best available scientific and commercial data."
Lastly, H.R. 4318 would place caps on how much agencies can reimburse the plaintiff's attorney fees in ESA lawsuits. The Equal Access to Justice Act requires agencies to pay the attorney and court costs to successful litigants, but Republicans have questioned whether it encourages frivolous lawsuits. The bill, from Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), would cap reimbursement at $125 per hour.
The potential success of the bills is unclear; committee Democrats had not yet commented on them by publication time. While Democrats have criticized how Republicans have approached ESA reform, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said the 40-year-old law could benefit from an update.
