Hearing will focus heat and light on new GOP wildlife bill

House Republicans are putting the legislation on the fast track.

March 04, 2024

 A new Republican-authored habitat conservation bill that recasts the Endangered Species Act will be batted around by a House panel this week.

Introduced by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), the “America's Wildlife Habitat Conservation Act," veers away from the bipartisan “Recovering America’s Wildlife Act” that lawmakers have championed since 2016.

H.R. 7408 had 21 GOP co-sponsors as of Friday afternoon. It offers a lot less money to states than RAWA, as the latter bill is commonly known.

The funding for state-level conservation programs is not guaranteed, unlike RAWA, and the Endangered Species Act revisions change the overall tenor of the bill.

All of which is likely to enliven Wednesday's hearing before House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.

"A misguided approach led by short-term thinking and a lack of of action by the federal government has harmed America's fish and wildlife by passively sitting by and allowing their habitat to be burned and destroyed," said Westerman, the full committee chair, during a press conference last week. "The good news is, we don't have to keep it this way."

House Democrats, so far, aren't buying it.

"There's really no effort to make this a pro-wildlife bill that works with the ESA," said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), "so it's a nonstarter. It will grind to a halt and nothing will happen."

Huffman is ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that will convene the hearing this week.

Westerman's bill would authorize up to $300 million a year for five years, to fund a new wildlife habitat conservation and restoration program.

The money would go to states, and an additional $20 million a year would go to tribes. The actual amount delivered would be up to Congress each year.

The funding would be offset be rescinding a total of $1.4 billion in unspent funds previously provided to the Interior Department and NOAA Fisheries under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The House bill would also eliminate a few small, never-funded ventures, such as a "murder hornet eradication pilot program" established several years ago.

The competing "Recovering America's Wildlife Act" would guarantee about $1.3 billion annually to states and tribes for wildlife conservation measures.

The most recent House version of "RAWA" introduced in April 2021 had 152 Democrats and 42 Republicans as co-sponsors. The House and Senate, though, have never been able to agree on a funding source.

The latest Senate version of the "Recovering America's Wildlife Act," S. 1149, was introduced in 2023 by Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and currently has nine Republican, six Democratic and two independent co-sponsors.

"It's hard to envision what's going to happen with the Senate. I think our bill can stand on its own, but we'll see what happens," Westerman said, adding that "there's a lot of crossover" between the bills.

Several organizations, including Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and the Association of State Fish and Wildlife Agencies, welcomed introduction of the Westerman bill, while the Sierra Club denounced it and the National Wildlife Federation offered a cautious assessment that identified benefits as well as shortcomings.

"We hope the introduction of this bill will spark bipartisan discussions about how additional funding for locally led conservation can help wildlife and our outdoor heritage endure for future generations," said Abby Tinsley, the National Wildlife Federation’s vice president for conservation policy.

The ESA provisions, in particular, are likely to attract both cheers and jeers at the hearing Thursday.

One provision, for instance, would direct the Fish and Wildlife Service to write tailored and possibly looser rules for protecting every threatened species.

Currently, the agency has the option but not the orders to do so. This flexibility does not extend to species designated as endangered.

States would also be able to propose their own recovery plans for threatened species under the Westerman bill, and the federal funds couldn't be used for the "reintroduction or management of a species" in a manner not supported by the state.

"States must be empowered to make the decisions based on the needs of their residents and on true science, not federal government mandates," said Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.)

Schedule: The hearing is Wednesday, March 7, at 10:15 a.m. in 1324 Longworth and via webcast.

Witnesses: TBA.


By:  Michael Doyle
Source: E&E Daily