[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10994]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        NORTHERN LONG-EARED BAT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, yesterday the United 
States Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will extend the deadline 
on its decision whether to list the northern long-eared bat as 
endangered under the Endangered Species Act in order to further review 
public comments on the proposal. The announcement comes in response to 
a letter initiated by members of the Pennsylvania congressional 
delegation outlining the lack of sufficient data used to support the 
designation and cautioning that moving forward with the listing would 
constitute a fundamentally ineffective approach to species restoration 
while severely harming the economy.
  The Service initially cited the effects of the white-nose syndrome as 
the lone basis for its proposed endangered listing. Although the 
disease is impacting the long-eared bat in areas of 38 States, the 
Service has acknowledged that the economic activities that would be 
most affected by the proposed listing have little impact on the 
population numbers or the decline of the species.
  Madam Speaker, this extension will allow for a fresh look at the 
sufficiency and the accuracy of the data and, with any hope, will allow 
the Service to consider a better alternative or more effective approach 
to combat the white-nose syndrome.

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