Federal Funding Will Combat White-Nose Syndrome

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I know that I join a large number of my colleagues here in the House in concern over the white- nose syndrome. It is a devastating fungus that has killed between 5.7 million and 6.7 million bats across North America.

Recently, I received news of grant funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to combat this disease and that Pennsylvania will receive more than $30,000.

As a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, I have been active in ensuring the effects of white-nose syndrome were appropriately addressed. I have participated in field hearings on the subject and toured habitats where bat populations have been devastated by this fungus. There is an ecological importance to sustaining the bat population as well as preventing the species from becoming endangered, which would cause great harm to resource production, agriculture, and construction across the Commonwealth and a large part of the country.

A rule finalized in 2015, which listed the northern long-eared bat, cleared the way for new conservation practices to be put in place where necessary, helping make new conservation measures possible without broadly prohibiting common land-use activities. It is my hope that these measures will help us in the effort against white-nose syndrome.

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