On the recordMay 22, 2023
I thank my colleague from the great State of Washington for giving me this opportunity and giving the people back home this opportunity. Mr. Speaker, today I rise on behalf of the communities and the residents of west central Indiana to share our experience with the Endangered Species Act. As an animal scientist and a farmer, I am a lifelong conservationist. I value the well-intended effort of the ESA to protect and conserve our Nation's most iconic species that really define our landscapes and have shaped our heritage. Unfortunately, I believe the ESA has failed to achieve the underlying mission, and many of my constituents have been forced to experience the consequences firsthand. Lakes Freeman and Shafer near Monticello, Indiana, have been a proper and appropriate tourist destination--home to many small businesses and attractions, and a vibrant local economy. A series of droughts and a tangle of bureaucratic red tape involving ESA devastated our once- thriving community. Following a listing more than a decade ago of mussels on the endangered species list found in the Tippecanoe River, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service subsequently ordered a new higher volume of water to flow out of the Oakdale Dam that forms Lake Freeman, in an effort to preserve these now protected mussels. This executive action by unelected bureaucrats became a death knell to the community and surrounding area.…
