21st Century Endangered Species Transparency Act
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 4315, and I appreciate my colleague from urban northern Virginia for his insight on the Endangered Species Act. But those of us from more rural areas actually understand that the challenges that are presented in this law as it currently stands beg for reform.
This bill contains important reforms to the act, and it has been authored by Chairman Hastings, Congresswoman Lummis, Congressman Neugebauer, and myself. Within that is a provision that I had authored, which is commonsense legislation that makes the Endangered Species Act consistent with current law.
It reforms the ESA litigation process while enhancing wildlife preservation, improving government efficiency, and protecting taxpayer dollars. And I know that is something that my colleagues on the other side have expressed, they are concerned with wasting precious dollars that have been appropriated to the EPA.
Well, for too long, litigating attorneys have taken advantage of the Endangered Species Act, raking in millions of taxpayer-funded money. In many ESA cases, lawyers' fees climb as high as $300, $400, or even $500 an hour, with hardworking American taxpayers left to foot the bill.
In fact, I have a 2013 quote here from David Hayes, the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, who was so concerned about this waste of resources, that he said this: ``My major concern is timing, resources needs, the fact this has been fish-in-the-barrel litigation for folks who, because there is a deadline and we miss these deadlines and so, we've been spending a huge amount of, in my mind, relatively unproductive time fending off lawsuits in this arena.''
And I couldn't have said it better.
But even worse, these rates can be awarded in cases where the Federal Government has settled with these groups that may not have even prevailed in the court system. This does absolutely nothing to benefit the species or the people and is not productive. My section of the bill seeks to remedy this unconscionable problem.
Currently, the Equal Access to Justice Act limits the hourly rate for prevailing attorney fees to $125 per hour for veterans, small businesses, and the Federal benefit recipients. So it is time that we apply the same cap to the ESA citizen suits as well.
So in times of tight fiscal budgets and escalating national debt, taxpayer dollars should be prioritized for the protection and recovery of species, not lining the pockets of highly priced lawyers.
With that, Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 4315 and for the commonsense updates that are so desperately needed.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source