Political Quotes

“You probably didn't know this, but 50 years ago, President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law, which was designed to do two very important things: Prevent species from going extinct and promoting their recovery. Mr. Speaker, since then, hundreds of plants and animals have joined the endangered or threatened species list, spurring conservation and recovery efforts at all levels of government. While well-intentioned, this law, unfortunately, has been abused and twisted so much that it doesn't even begin to achieve its goals. In short, it is a failure. Although there have been some successes in the past 50 years, only 72 of the 1,389 listed species have been recovered and removed from the list. That is a 5 percent success rate. Only in the Federal Government would anyone consider 5 percent a passing grade. The Congressional Western Caucus has long advocated for improvements to modernize the ESA and make it more effective for our species and more transparent for the American people. We have advocated on behalf of the rural communities that we represent who are severely impacted by ESA listing decisions and who, in many cases, are working in collaboration with private landowners, community groups, tribes, local governments to promote successful species recovery and land conservation.…”