Kay Bailey Hutchison: “last year, Congress put a hold on listing of endangered species and the designation of critical habitat that went along…”

“last year, Congress put a hold on listing of endangered species and the designation of critical habitat that went along with that to give us time to reauthorize the Endangered Species Act. We called a timeout on new listings so we could reexamine a 20-year-old law without the pressure of new listing decisions. Authorization for appropriations ended on September 30, 1992 --3 years ago. Mr. President, we have been operating without an authorization for this act, and that is because so many things have been done that are far beyond the bounds of common sense. The moratorium was to give us the timeout so that we would be able to put listings on under the new reauthorization, to pass without opposition in the House of Representatives, and with 60 votes here in the Senate-- a clear mandate to say, wait a minute, let us stop doing things that do not make sense under a law that is not reauthorized, and let us talk about what we ought to be doing to protect the endangered species of our country. But let us do it without taking private property rights and without hurting jobs, without hurting the economy in this country. We can do both. We can have a positive solution. But, Mr. President, there are 239 species that are ready to be listed. In fact, we have tried to work with the other side to make sure that the listings could be prepared and that the funding was there to prepare the listings along the way. We have done that in good faith.…”