Political Quotes

“I wish to speak about a column written by Ms. Karen Budd-Falen, a Wyoming attorney, entitled ``Major Regulatory Expansion of ESA Listing and Critical Habitat Designation.'' The article was published in the Wyoming Livestock Roundup on March 19, 2016. Through a variety of rules, regulations, and seemingly innocuous proposals, agencies under this administration have gone outside their congressionally given authorities and willfully ignored the intent of the very statutes that authorize Federal management of public lands and resources. In the article, Karen raises a series of concerns, concerns I share, about the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's calculated efforts to change key parts of the Endangered Species Act. Through a series of administrative revisions, the Service has substantially changed the way critical habitat is designated for species listed for protection under the act. Critical habitat, as Karen recognizes in her article, is ``. . . generally habitat upon which the species depends for survival. Importantly critical habitat can include both private and/or federal land and water.'' Karen outlines that, through piecemeal revisions, the Service has effectively removed all limitations of this definition. No longer will the Service be limited to enact Federal policy on a precise area where a species lives.…”