Niki Tsongas: “My amendment, which I offer with Mr. Beyer of Virginia, would strike three policy riders related to the Endangered…”

“My amendment, which I offer with Mr. Beyer of Virginia, would strike three policy riders related to the Endangered Species Act from the underlying bill, those concerning the greater sage-grouse, the northern long-eared bat, and the gray wolf. I want to focus my remarks on the greater sage-grouse. The language in this bill that seeks to block an Endangered Species Act listing of the bird is unnecessary and is completely inappropriate, putting both the species and the historic quintessentially American sagebrush steppe landscape at risk. In 1901, Mark Twain described the sagebrush steppe as a ``forest in exquisite miniature.'' At one point, as many as 16 million greater sage-grouse called the sagebrush sea home. Settlers traveling west said that flocks of sage-grouse ``blackened the sky.'' Today the population has been reduced to as few as 200,000 birds. Right now there are unprecedented and proactive partnerships throughout the West which are working to conserve sagebrush habitat, to encourage predictability for economic development, and to prevent the listing of the greater sage-grouse as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Federal agencies, States, sportsmen, ranchers, farmers, and conservationists have all come together in this effort.…”