A House Natural Resources subcommittee on Tuesday will meet to discuss a slate of bills, including a controversial draft to reform the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The discussion draft, credited to Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich, would scale down the scope of the MMPA and raise the bar for the federal government to take action to protect marine mammals like whales, dolphins, seals and polar bears. Environmental advocates have warned that, as written, the bill would gut the MMPA and expose myriad species to extinction.
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), chair of the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee, earlier this year called the MMPA “well-intentioned” but nevertheless complained that “ambiguous, outdated and unclear language has proven unworkable.”
According to a statement of policy in the discussion draft, Republicans are pushing to amend the law because its implementation has “unduly and unnecessarily constrained government, tribes, and the regulated community.”
