[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 169 (Thursday, October 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6820-S6821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WYDEN:
  S. 3605. A bill to support wildlife conservation, improve anti-
trafficking enforcement, provide dedicated funding for wildlife 
conservation at no expense to taxpayers, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Wildlife 
Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act which will work to protect 
threatened or endangered species, reduce human rights violations, and 
limit the illegal operations of international criminal organizations.

[[Page S6821]]

  This bill is a bipartisan and bicameral effort, sponsored in the 
House of Representatives by Representative Madeleine Bordallo and 
Representative Don Young, and I look forward to growing its support in 
the Senate.
  Conservation violations and wildlife trafficking offenses are a 
global problem threatening biodiversity and animal welfare and 
facilitating significant criminal operations. Tackling this broad 
problem is complicated and compounded by insufficient penalties for 
offenders and the difficulty of maintaining U.S.-oversight on the 
global level.
  This bill proposes to address these concerns by criminalizing 
elements of wildlife-trafficking operations under Federal racketeering 
and organized crime statutes. Classifying wildlife-trafficking crimes 
as ``predicate offenses'' under the Money Laundering Statute, Travel 
Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act enables 
prosecutors to administer substantial fines and prison-time for 
violations.
  The bill recognizes the value of whistleblowers' information to 
direct investigations into wildlife-trafficking violations. It 
establishes a procedure to secure valuable, useful information from 
informants and provide sufficient compensation for the risks these 
individuals make to blow the whistle on illegal operations. To do so, 
the bill redirects penalty payments from wildlife-trafficking 
violations to fund whistleblower compensation programs. Monetary 
rewards to wildlife-crime whistleblowers come from partial share of 
penalty paid to the U.S. Government, providing no additional expense to 
American taxpayers.
  The bill empowers Federal wildlife agents to operate abroad and 
provides them with direction to collaborate with local authorities. It 
instructs the Secretary of the Interior to adopt an International 
Wildlife Conservation Program consisting of four components: a regional 
component providing for protection of natural range habitats; a species 
component focusing conservation on most vulnerable species; an anti-
trafficking component to curtail demand and limit poaching; and a 
convention component to implement the Convention on International Trade 
in the Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, CITES.
  The legislation seeks to expand the Marine Turtle Act of 2004 by 
extending the legislation's coverage to include U.S. territories, and 
increasing the Act's scope to cover marine and freshwater turtles as 
well as tortoises.
  Additionally, the bill proposes to strengthen the Marine Mammal 
Protection Act of 1972 and the Shark-Finning Measure under the 
Magnuson-Stevens Act by establishing that fines associated with 
violating these acts are to be used to benefit the same species that 
were affected.
  Of particular concern to fishermen and women up and down the coasts, 
the bill addresses illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing 
violations by considering serious abuses as violations of Federal money 
laundering laws and therefore subjecting violators to substantial 
penalties.
  Protecting wildlife requires a unified and strategic approach to end 
poaching worldwide. Congress must aggressively counter the relentless 
activities of poachers, traffickers, and transnational criminal 
organizations. The Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act is a 
strong response to crimes against wildlife; it will provide the 
necessary tools to curtail these illicit activities.

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