[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 129 (Thursday, October 6, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2016-E2017]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES RECOVERY ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. MARTIN T. MEEHAN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 29, 2005

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill. (H.R. 3824) to 
     amend and reauthorize the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to 
     provide greater results conserving and recovering listed 
     species, and for other purposes:

  Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in opposition to the so-called 
``Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act,'' (TESRA). The 
sponsors of TESRA claim that they want to ``reform'' the ESA because 
it's not helping enough threatened and endangered species recover. In 
reality, it is aimed at weakening, dismantling, and rendering 
unenforceable the Endangered Species Act, ESA.
  The original Endangered Species Act was a bipartisan effort to 
protect our natural heritage. Yet today, as we consider how to update 
and modernize that legislation, we are presented not with a truly 
bipartisan bill, but a massive special interest giveaway that guts ESA 
despite a thirty year track record of success. A vote for the passage 
of TESRA is a vote to abdicate responsible environmental policy and to 
create a new form of corporate welfare.
  Since the enactment of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, tens of 
millions of acres of land in the United States have been managed for 
conservation purposes. As a result, of the 1800 species protected under 
ESA, we have lost only 9 to extinction. That's a 99 percent success 
rate on extinction prevention.
  TESRA's most fundamental change abandons the basic priority of the 
Endangered Species Act: the commitment to species recovery. The 
overarching goal of ESA is to bring species back from the brink of 
extinction to the point where they no longer need to be given special 
protection. TESRA alters that mission by effectively negating the goal 
of species recovery. TESRA specifically eliminates the requirement that 
the Federal Government attempt to restore species to healthy population 
levels.
  Furthermore, under TESRA any species recovery plan the government 
might conceive would be non-binding. Had ESA had these guidelines in 
place since 1973, the recovery of many species, including the peregrine 
falcon and the American alligator, would have been almost 
inconceivable. In the case of the alligator, recovery was so successful 
that we are now even able to implement controlled farming of the 
restored population.
  There are two areas of the bill which I found particularly 
problematic and sought to address through amendments. My first 
amendment would strike language from TESRA that would turn back the 
clock on the scientific determination of an endangered species. My 
second amendment would strike language from TESRA that creates a very 
dangerous precedent: setting up a system where the government pays 
people for obeying the law.
  Rather than offer these separately on the floor, I am pleased to see 
their substance included in the bipartisan Miller-Boehlert substitute 
that we will be considering today.
  The use of science is of special importance in the implementation of 
the species protection program. Rather than using the best available 
science for species protection, TESRA explicitly prohibits the 
government from using advanced, modern scientific tools like 
statistical modeling that we have at our disposal today and that assist 
us in the implementation of ESA.

  By taking away these cutting edge tools, TESRA would make it 
exceedingly difficult to make determinations on the status of any 
species whose populations are small, isolated, and scattered. The 
result will be a weakened and limited scientific process in decisions 
made under the act, more obstacles and less protection. The substitute 
bill restores ESA's original approach to science, which is to use the 
best science available to help save and recover endangered species.

[[Page E2017]]

  My second proposed amendment addresses a trouble area in TESRA 
introducing a requirement that the Federal Government actually pay 
developers and polluters to comply with the law. This provision would 
have serious and widespread implications: it sets a dangerous precedent 
in environmental protection. This amounts to a new entitlement program 
that would result in a windfall for land developers and speculators--at 
the expense of the taxpayers and the species we seek to protect under 
ESA.
  This provision of TESRA is part of a broader movement to treat all 
environmental regulation as a form of ``property taking'' that requires 
government compensation. It is a novel legal theory that would strike 
at the heart of virtually every piece of environmental regulation ever 
passed. The proposal under TESRA is particularly ripe for abuse because 
it sets no cap or limitations. Under TESRA, someone could purchase 
cheap land, announce an intention to develop on it, and then demand a 
check from the government compensating them for the much higher value 
of the developed property, all without ever even intending to break 
ground. The same developer could conceivably come back an unlimited 
number of times for an unlimited number of ``projects''. My amendment, 
the substance of which is mirrored in the Miller-Boehlert substitute, 
strikes this payment scheme entirely.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose the TESRA roll back of the 
Endangered Species Act and to support the bipartisan Miller-Boehlert 
substitute to preserve and strengthen one of the most successful pieces 
of environmental legislation in 30 years.

                          ____________________