Lincoln Chafee: “first of all, this is legislation on an appropriations bill, and I think that is improper to start with. But more than…”

“first of all, this is legislation on an appropriations bill, and I think that is improper to start with. But more than that, it is absolutely clear that in the Environment and Public Works Committee we are going to deal with the Endangered Species Act this year. That act is coming up for reauthorization and, indeed, it has not been reauthorized in several years, but we are going to reauthorize it. We are going to review it in connection with all the problems that have been cited so frequently. I just think it is a mistake for us to be going at this piecemeal with every State which has a particular problem with the Endangered Species Act, to bring it forward in this piecemeal fashion. We are going to go at it in a very thoughtful way with hearings, with the administration testifying, with those Senators who wish to testify to come forward and, indeed, just today, we considered a measure by the Senator from Texas that would apply a 6-month moratorium on further listings under the Endangered Species Act. It deals solely with section 4, which is the listing section, and it does not deal with section 7, which is the conciliation section. That is quite proper. In our committee, we had the Secretary of the Interior, Secretary Bruce Babbitt, testify. We had representatives from industry, and we had representatives from the affected areas and that is a very thoughtful way to proceed on this.”