[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 97 (Tuesday, June 9, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2687-S2688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               GREAT APES

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, my predecessor Senator Patrick Leahy is 
known for many groundbreaking pieces of legislation over the course of 
his 48 years in the Senate. But he was also responsible for many 
initiatives that are not so well known, and I want to speak briefly 
about one of them.
  From 1989 until his retirement in 2023, Senator Leahy served as 
either chairman or ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on 
the Department of State Foreign Operations, and Related Programs which 
among other things funds U.S. assistance around the world. During those 
years, he built a record of strong support for programs to protect 
tropical forests and endangered species, which are under siege from 
illegal logging, mining, industrial scale agriculture, urban 
encroachment, and wildlife poaching and trafficking. One of those 
programs established by Senator Leahy was to protect our closest 
ancestors, the four species of great apes: orangutans, gorillas, 
chimpanzees, and bonobos.
  Each of these species faces the threat of extinction in the wild due 
to habitat loss and poaching. Some are killed for meat; others are 
captured and sold as pets. On the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the 
only places where orangutans live, the rainforests are being cut down 
at a furious pace to make way for vast palm oil plantations. Habitat 
loss and poaching are similarly threatening the survival of the other 
three species of great apes in Africa.
  By the end of President Trump's first term, funding to protect great 
apes had reached $45 million annually. The funds were administered by 
USAID and used by nongovernment organizations in Indonesia, Rwanda, 
Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for anti-poaching 
initiatives and strengthening law enforcement in local biological 
reserves and along international borders; promoting sustainable land 
use and forest management to safeguard areas critical to great apes; 
and working with local villagers to develop sustainable livelihoods and 
reduce reliance on poaching or destructive agricultural practices. 
USAID also partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through 
its Great Apes Conservation Fund, which provided grants for field 
projects in Africa and Indonesia.
  In addition, the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics 
and Law Enforcement Affairs has supported programs to strengthen the 
capacity of local law enforcement in Africa and Asia to combat wildlife 
trafficking and

[[Page S2688]]

the money laundering, corruption, and violent crime associated with it.
  While these efforts have helped stem the precipitous decline in the 
numbers of great apes, their survival in the wild remains far from 
assured. Transnational criminal organizations, catering to a rapacious 
Asian market for wildlife parts, are reaping huge profits from the 
illegal wildlife trade. These organizations are often also involved in 
trafficking drugs, weapons, and human beings. The ever-increasing 
demand for timber, minerals, and food in Asia, Africa, and Latin 
America is destroying wildlife habitat at an alarming rate. Rainforests 
are being transformed into polluted wastelands from mining, massive 
farms of oil palm and soybeans, and grazing land for cattle. Great 
apes, which like many species need large areas to forage for food, are 
being squeezed from all directions.
  Despite the administration's disastrous decision to shut down USAID 
and destroy the careers of thousands of talented and dedicated USAID 
employees, Congress has continued to provide funding to protect 
endangered species, including great apes. But the amount of funding has 
been sharply reduced, and it remains to be seen whether the State 
Department will manage the funds in the manner intended by Congress.
  Orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos are the only existing 
examples of our earliest apelike ancestors who first began walking 
upright nearly 4 million years ago. Despite having existed for millions 
of years and sharing 97 percent of our DNA, great apes today are 
entirely dependent on us for survival.
  I have urged the Appropriations Committee to increase funding for 
great ape conservation while there is still time to protect them from 
extinction. I also urge the State Department and the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service to recognize what is at stake and to resume and 
significantly expand their efforts to protect great ape habitat and 
combat poaching and trafficking.
  And finally, I urge the leaders of Indonesia and the central African 
countries that are home to great apes to recognize their unique 
responsibility to ensure the survival of these animals by protecting 
their forest habitat; greatly strengthening enforcement of anti-
trafficking laws; supporting programs to rescue, rehabilitate, and 
return to the wild great apes that have been trafficked; and educating 
their people about the need to protect great apes and the forests they 
depend on.

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