Endangered Species Act Reform Advances in Cramer Committee

Press Release

A package of four legislative reforms to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), each cosponsored by Congressman Kevin Cramer, advanced in the House Committee on Natural Resources today. The legislation aims to improve the ESA, which has not been updated since 1988 and has a species recovery rate of one percent.

The 21st Century Endangered Species Transparency Act would require data used by federal agencies for ESA listing decisions to be made publicly available and accessible through the Internet, allowing citizens and independent professionals to view the science and data used to make listing decisions.

The Endangered Species Recovery Transparency Act would promote transparency by requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to track and make available online information on the funds used to respond to ESA lawsuits, the number of employees dedicated to litigation, and attorney fees awarded through ESA litigation and settlement agreements.

The State, Tribal, and Local Species Transparency and Recovery Act would ensure federal agencies live up to its statutory responsibility to "cooperate to the maximum extent practicable with states" by mandating the federal government include data provided by affected states, tribes, and local governments before making a determination, and disclose to affected states all data used prior to a listing decision. Many states have expressed concerns over their efforts being ignored and duplication of analyses done by federal agencies.

The Endangered Species Litigation Reasonableness Act would address costly and time consuming litigation by placing a reasonable cap on attorney fees. The Equal Access to Justice Act limits the hourly rate for prevailing attorney fees to $125 per hour. However, no such fee cap currently exists under the ESA, and attorneys have often been paid upwards of $400, $500, or even $700 per hour in taxpayer funds. This bill would put in place the same $125 per hour cap on attorney fees for suits filed under the ESA.

"The endless stream of frivolous lawsuits aimed at exploiting the ESA has crippled its ability to protect the interests of both its intended species, and people. We are taking a careful, systematic approach to reform with the goal of common sense species protection. These changes are significant and reasonable step towards ensuring private property rights and economic livelihood of North Dakotans are respected," said Cramer.

Cramer is a member of the Natural Resources Committee, which has held five hearings in an ongoing effort to reform the ESA. Last year the Committee held a field hearing in Billings, Montana requested by Cramer and colleagues to examine the potential impacts of the Greater Sage Grouse potentially receiving an endangered species listing. Part of the Greater Sage Grouse habitat is found in southwestern North Dakota. Between 1999 and 2003, environmental groups filed eight petitions to add an ESA listing for the Greater Sage Grouse to which the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) found in 2005 did not warrant a listing. Five lawsuits were subsequently filed by environmental groups against the FWS and in 2011 reached a settlement requiring the FWS to make a final listing determination no later than September 30, 2015. Such a listing could have severe repercussions on agriculture, energy production, and outdoor recreation activities in the state.

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