Niki Tsongas: “This amendment attempts to add yet another completely unrelated Endangered Species Act rider to the underlying bill.…”

“This amendment attempts to add yet another completely unrelated Endangered Species Act rider to the underlying bill. Specifically, this amendment would prohibit the lesser prairie chicken and the American burying beetle from being listed as endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The lesser prairie chicken was listed as threatened under the ESA in March 2014, and the American burying beetle was listed as endangered in 1989. Given the very broad language of this amendment, it is clear that DOD lands are not the primary driver of this attack on the Endangered Species Act. If the sponsors really wanted to protect DOD activities and military readiness, they would have written the language as such. In fact, the amendment does not make a single reference to military readiness. The Department of Defense does not believe this amendment is necessary. DOD has given no indication that the listings of these species has negatively impacted military readiness, for good reason. Since being listed, neither the lesser prairie chicken nor the burying beetle have had critical habitat designated on DOD lands. Just look at this map. There is virtually no overlap between our military installations, which are in red, and the lesser prairie chicken's range. In fact, if you look, they are separated in most instances by hundreds of miles, with the green areas representing the current range of the species and the red areas our military installations.…”