Feb 3 at 4:41 PM
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Thank you for contacting me regarding our endangered species. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue, and I welcome the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
Like you, I am deeply concerned with the administration’s recent rollback of key provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Since its enactment, an amazing ninety-nine percent of species granted protection by the law have survived. Many of them have not just survived but have since been taken off the endangered list. Without the full protections the of Endangered Species Act, there will be significant negative impacts to not only the listed species (or potentially listed species), but also to our ecosystems at large.
Among the new rules the Trump administration recently implemented allows for economic factors to be taken into consideration when deciding whether to add a species on to the endangered list. This is in direct opposition to the bill’s original intent, which was that listing decisions should be governed by science.
That is why I am proud to cosponsor H.R. 4348, the PAW and FIN Conservation Act of 2019. This bill specifically restores rules pertaining to the listing of endangered species that the Trump administration has rescinded. These restored rules include but are not limited to; automatically granting threatened species the same protections as endangered species and prohibiting economic assessments from being considered in listing decision.
Further, I am also a proud cosponsor of H.R. 3742, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act of 2019. This bill provides an additional $1.4 billion in annual funding to efforts by the states to recover wildlife species at risk. Specifically, it would bolster the federally approved State Wildlife Action Plans, which have identified twelve thousand species of wildlife and plants in need of conservation assistance.
Sincerely,
William R. Keating Member of Congress |
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