Political Quotes

“later today, we will be voting on legislation I introduced with 20 of our colleagues, S.J. Res. 23. This resolution rescinds the Biden administration's 2022 rule that rolled back a commonsense and necessary definition of ``habitat'' under the Endangered Species Act from the previous administration. When Congress passed the Endangered Species Act, it granted the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce, through the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, respectively, the authority to designate areas as ``critical habitat.'' Section 7 of the Act prohibits the ``destruction or adverse modification'' of these critical habitat designations. There is no doubt that habitat loss is a contributing factor to species' declines, so protecting habitat that is necessary to the survival of species is appropriate. The problem that has arisen, however, is that these designations have, on occasion, been weaponized to the detriment of landowners, the American public, and the very species we are trying to protect. Two-thirds of all endangered species are located on private lands. For these species to be recovered, private landowners must be part of the solution and not treated as the enemy. Unfortunately, through aggressive critical habitat designations, as well-intentioned as they might be, private landowners are penalized and harmed instead of incentivized to help with species recovery.…”