A House panel on Wednesday laid the foundation for reconstructing both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, while leaving the exact blueprints for another day.
In a hearing that veered from Supreme Court dictates to billionaire Elon Musk and back again, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries promoted the conservatives’ case for updating the two laws.
“Both of [them] have been administratively defined and redefined so many times that their original authors would be hard pressed to recognize their original creation,” said Rep. Harriet Hageman, the Wyoming Republican who chairs the panel. “There is no denying that, after half a century, both laws need improvements, and the committee intends to do just that.”
Hageman added that the ESA has gone “off the rails” since Congress passed it in 1973, citing the ongoing listing of the Yellowstone-area grizzly bear population as threatened despite its population rebound. As one of its last acts, the Biden administration’s Fish and Wildlife Service reaffirmed the bear’s threatened status.
