[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3862 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3862

 To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to clarify the intent of 
 Congress and ensure that any person having any economic interest that 
 is directly or indirectly harmed by a designation of critical habitat 
               may bring a citizen's suit under that Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 22, 1996

   Mrs. Chenoweth (for herself, Mr. Pombo, Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. 
Doolittle, Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Stockman, Mr. Brewster, 
   Mr. Cooley of Oregon, Mr. Stump, Mrs. Cubin, Mr. Radanovich, Mr. 
   Tauzin, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, Mr. Dornan, Mr. 
Hastings of Washington, Mrs. Vucanovich, Mrs. Seastrand, Mr. Fields of 
Texas, Mr. Barton of Texas, Mr. Stenholm, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Baker of 
  Louisiana, Mr. Solomon, Mr. Laughlin, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Herger, Mrs. 
 Myrick, Mr. Dickey, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Istook, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Hilleary, 
    Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Combest, Mr. Funderburk, Mr. Barr of 
Georgia, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. Metcalf, Mr. Cox of California, Mr. Lucas of 
    Oklahoma, Mr. Riggs, Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas, and Mr. Hansen) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to clarify the intent of 
 Congress and ensure that any person having any economic interest that 
 is directly or indirectly harmed by a designation of critical habitat 
               may bring a citizen's suit under that Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Citizen's Fair Hearing Act of 
1996''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Endangered Species Act of 1973 grants broad 
        regulatory authority to various agencies to take actions to 
        protect, preserve, and recover species of plants and animals 
        determined to be in danger of extinction or threatened with 
        becoming so within the foreseeable future.
            (2) Recently, private property owners and other persons 
        that have been adversely impacted by Federal agency actions 
        under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 have sought to bring 
        civil actions for recovery of damages imposed by the Act. The 
        United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has 
        found that plaintiffs in those actions do not have standing to 
        bring the suits, because they do not fall into the zone of 
        interests protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

SEC. 3. GIVING PERSONS WITH AFFECTED ECONOMIC INTERESTS EQUAL STANDING 
              TO SUE UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF 1973.

    Section 11(g)(1) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 
1540(g)(1)) is amended by striking so much as precedes subparagraph (A) 
and inserting the following:
    ``(g) Citizen Suits.--(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), any 
person that satisfies the requirements of the Constitution and 
demonstrates having suffered or being threatened with economic or other 
injury resulting from a violation of the Act or a failure of the 
Secretary to act in accordance with the Act is deemed to be within the 
zone of protected interests of this Act and shall have standing to 
commence a civil suit on his or her own behalf--''.
                                 <all>