Endangered Species Act Reform
Improving the ESA so it works better for species and landowners.
Wildlife conservation issues can have a significant impact on West Texans, and smart conservation strategies are critical to our farmers, ranchers, and energy producers.
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law in 1973 to preserve, protect and recover species. Unfortunately, the law has had little success at recovering species--only about 1% have been delisted. Instead, it's now a tool for litigation by environmental activists that drains resources from real recovery efforts and blocks job-creating economic activities.
I'm working on solutions that will help us protect the livelihoods of individuals while maintaining healthy wildlife populations.
I've introduced two bills to improve the ESA to make it more effective and prevent unnecessary listings like this in the future. H.R. 4284, the ESA Improvement Act, empowers states to protect and restore species and prevent listings by requiring FWS to involve them in the process before a listing is proposed. H.R. 4317, the State, Tribal, and Local Species Transparency and Recovery Act, requires FWS to provide states with the data they are using to justify their listing decisions. Additionally, it requires FWS to consider scientific data submitted by state and local governments before making a determination.
