Recovering America's Wildlife Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today opposed to the underlying bill.

Americans are living in paralyzing fear, watching all of their household income get eaten up by the price of gas and household needs and watching their retirement security disappear in our new bear market.

The Biden and House Democrat approach has been to spend their way out of every problem, and look where it has gotten us.

The Recovering America's Wildlife Act is well intended. Of course, we conservationists support investments in our species. But there is still no pay-for. This is $1.4 billion in perpetuity, with no pay-for or offset.

During committee markup, Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee simply asked to offset the spending that continues to punish Americans. But Democrats declined to negotiate in good faith and are choosing to aggravate inflation instead.

However, I offer legislation that will actually help fix the problem. The Endangered Species Act Flexibility Act will give the Interior Secretary options to help endangered species without crippling our economy.

Too often, the ESA is abused. Science is ignored, and the law is used as a weapon to stop much-needed development. Take, for example, the northern long-eared bat. The bat's massive range runs from Maine to Texas to Montana, with everything in between. You can see it on the map right here.

Northern long-eared bats are, sadly, afflicted with white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by a fungus that interrupts hibernation, leading to their death. The science is clear: This disease has nothing to do with human activity.

But because of declining population, the Fish and Wildlife Service is deciding whether to uplist the species, which would severely restrict logging, mining, and infrastructure building, like roads, bridges, ports, and more.

Would you like to spend that infrastructure money on upgrading projects anywhere on this map? Good luck if the northern long-eared bat is listed as endangered.

My ESA Flexibility Act will give the Interior Department the latitude to make species-specific habitat plans for endangered species, so we don't punish Americans who need a transmission line to get reliable power or need a bridge upgrade to drive to work.

I don't think a single Member of Congress here, across both aisles, would disagree that the Endangered Species Act is an imperfect law in desperate need of tweaks.

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Mr. STAUBER. Therefore, I regret that my ESA Flexibility Act was not accepted as an amendment, but I look forward to the eventual passage of the ESA Flexibility Act into law.

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