The Senate on Wednesday shot down legislation to stop a Biden-era plan encouraging the killing of one species of owl to save another.
The fight became bitter at times, pitting Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy against some of his colleagues and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who support the killings.
Kennedy sponsored a resolution under the Congressional Review Act to nix a Fish and Wildlife Service plan to save the native and critically endangered northern spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest by killing non-native barred owls. The legislation failed 25-72.
“I can’t think of a rule … that better demonstrates the arrogance, the hubris, of the federal administrative state,” Kennedy said from the Senate floor before the vote, flanked by posters of owls and the rifle-carrying cartoon character Elmer Fudd. “This regulation is stupid and we will live to regret it.”
The Congressional Review Act makes it easier for lawmakers to undo administration actions. Republicans have used it repeatedly against Biden rules.
Kennedy said Burgum called him last week urging the senator to withdraw his resolution. Kennedy refused, saying the secretary should “call somebody who cared what he thought.”
Kennedy in recent days repeatedly deployed his signature rhetorical barbs against Burgum and the Biden rule. He described the barred owl as having “very soulful eyes” and said Burgum was “mad as a mama wasp.” Kennedy also said the administration was using DEI for owls.
The Trump administration is supporting the Biden-era action under pressure from loggers, who say scrapping the owl-killing rule could affect existing land-use plans. That, they say, would then jeopardize GOP efforts to increase logging.
Other groups have been split. Some animal rights advocates have sided with Kennedy. But environmentalists have pointed to protecting the endangered spotted owl.
Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group, celebrated the vote as a win for science. He said it “soundly rejects efforts to undermine science-based decisionmaking.”
Similar divisions were evident among senators and went well beyond party lines.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, “Killing a half-billion owls seems like a crazy thing for the government to be doing.”
But Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said, “The Trump administration agrees with the Biden administration on this — how rare is that on this strategy? We’ve heard a lot from timber and some other folks.”
