Congress Likely to HALT Proposal to Alter Endangered Species Act

:applause: :applause:

http://public.cq.com/docs/cqt/news110-000002479313.html

Congress Likely to Halt Proposal to Alter Endangered Species Act
By Manu Raju, CQ Staff

Senior Democrats on Tuesday suggested that they may use appropriations legislation to block Bush administration plans to make sweeping changes to the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

A draft Interior Department rule, leaked Tuesday by two environmental groups, would limit the reach of the law (PL 93-205), which prohibits industrial and other activities that could harm the habitats of endangered and threatened species.

The proposal is still undergoing an interagency review, but environmentalists argue that it could allow problematic industrial practices to continue, limit the listing of new endangered species and transfer too much authority to state governments.

A spokesman for the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service said the leaked proposal is an early draft that will be revised extensively.

Experts say the rule would have to be officially proposed within the next six weeks if the administration wants it in place before President Bush leaves office.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who sponsored legislation to overhaul the law when serving in the Senate (1993-99), said last week that the department was taking thousands of public comments to see “what can we do so it gets closer and closer to meeting the original intent of the act.”

But with details of the plan emerging Tuesday, several key Democrats vowed to block it.

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