I co-sponsored four bills today to reform the Endangered Species Act. These bills make commonsense changes that increase transparency, save taxpayer money, ensure local involvement in species conservation and the designation process, limit the hourly rate attorneys can charge the taxpayers for Endangered Species Act lawsuits and require the federal government to make available to Congress and the public any data it uses to determine which species to list as endangered. For far too long the federal government has been making listing decisions based on secret science and pseudo-science, including studies that do not allow for peer-review of the underlying data. Even more troubling is the fact that attorneys have been making millions of dollars based on frivolous lawsuits associated with the Endangered Species Act and that the federal government doesn’t even know how much money has been paid out. The government shouldnt have anything to hide if these listings are indeed based on the best available science and there should be local involvement in this process. Most importantly, attorneys shouldnt be getting rich at the expense of hardworking taxpayers.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 23:15:23 +0000
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