Donald M. Payne: “I rise today to oppose the unwise, unsound, and unsubstantiated policy changes contained in H.R. 3824--misleadingly…”

“I rise today to oppose the unwise, unsound, and unsubstantiated policy changes contained in H.R. 3824--misleadingly named the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005. I am deeply concerned about the elimination of all critical habitat provisions of the Endangered Species Act without any mechanism to protect habitat needed for species recovery. I am troubled by the removal of protections for ``threatened'' species and the weakening of endangered species recovery teams. Moreover, I believe that sound science produces accurate data from which sound policy decisions can be made. When we choose not to respect the role of science in our regulatory decisions, we are cheating ourselves out of valuable information and we run the risk of making poor or erroneous judgments about crucial conservation decisions. By allowing a political appointee to develop a definition of ``best available science'' and increasing barriers to access to scientific data, I believe that this bill needlessly politicizes scientific decision-making, and I fear that we are setting ourselves up for many unsound policy choices as a result. I am not only motivated by the harms this bill will have on the plant and animal species, but by the threat to the health and well-being of the human species as well. The pesticide provisions of this bill seem to indicate a willingness to endanger the lives of migrant and seasonal farmworkers, their families, and their children.…”