the term 'best available scientific and commercial information' includes data submitted by a state or tribal or a county government.

What this bill, unfortunately, does is to penalize the endangered species that Mr. Westerman says that he is seeking to protect.

I ask unanimous consent to enter a letter into the record of over 1,500 scientists and experts urging Congress not to weaken the Endangered Species Act.

I found, in reviewing other statutes that preclude judicial review, that they are essentially invitations for agency mischief.

The ESA is one of the only pieces of legislation that has long prevented the unique American landscape from turning into barren wasteland.

The bills being discussed today would undermine these protections, and make it more difficult for endangered species to recover.

I urge you to reject this package of bills that would threaten species already at risk of disappearing forever.

I suggest that before we make this the issue of the lawsuit and a citizen's right to access the court for redress, and handcuff that process, that we look very carefully.

I think this bill raises very, very significant and large concerns about what it might do to the endangered species program.

They are not thoughtful pieces of legislation to fix real problems--like the extinction crisis we currently face.

While this political stunt of a hearing is ridiculous on its own, the titles of some of these bills are really insults to the public's intelligence.