America's Wildlife Win Congressional Showdown
The current leaders in the House think that saving America’s wildlife is asking too much so they introduced legislation to remove all funds used by the government to add new species to those receiving ESA protections, never mind there’s a list 260 species long waiting to get on the ark. The legislation also would have similarly…
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The current leaders in the House think that saving America’s wildlife is asking too much so they introduced legislation to remove all funds used by the government to add new species to those receiving ESA protections, never mind there’s a list 260 species long waiting to get on the ark.
The legislation also would have similarly frozen any work to designate habitat critical to species protection and recovery. Finally it would have prevented the government from increasing protection for those species spiraling from threatened to the more critical endangered status.
But when the time came to vote, the House leaders lost.
Nearly all Democrats were joined by nearly 40 Republicans to preserve the federal funds needed to carry out these important tasks. The final vote was 224-202. Democratic Reps. Norm Dicks (WA), Mike Thompson (CA) and Colleen Hanabusa (HI), and Republican Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (PA) took the lead in pushing back on the effort to defund the ESA.
America owes a debt of gratitude to all of those representatives, both Democrat and Republican, who joined them to stick up for America’s wildlife.
Marjorie Mulhall is the Executive Director of Earthjustice Action, Earthjustice’s 501(c)4 advocacy partner, focusing on grassroots advocacy, education, and electoral work.
Established in 1989, Earthjustice's Policy & Legislation team works with champions in Congress to craft legislation that supports and extends our legal gains.
