Panel Whacks Away At Species Act Provision Favoring Protection Of Landowners Included

The House Resources Committee, after a day of verbal sparring, voted late Thursday to overhaul the Endangered Species Act and give increased financial protection to landowners.

The legislation cleared the Republican-run committee, 27-17, in a largely party-line vote. Earlier, the committee had rejected more modest changes to the law by a 28-17 vote. The measure now awaits action on the House floor.

The action represented the first step by GOP conservatives and property rights advocates to dramatically rewrite the federal law that protects endangered and threatened plants, fish and animals. A Senate bill still awaits hearings.

The committee bill, pushed by many Western lawmakers, would require the government to compensate landowners for lost property values as a result of restrictions caused by species protection.

The measure also would:

Eliminate a requirement that a species habitat, as well as the species itself, be protected.

Give states a greater say in listing and protecting endangered species.

Eliminate protection for endangered marine mammals such as sea turtles or sea lions, leaving such protection to other laws. It would permit the killing of sea lions that prey on protected salmon.

No longer require that an imperiled species be fully recovered before lifting special protection.

Supporters of the legislation argued that it represents long-overdue changes in a federal law that for 22 years often has protected rare plants, animals, bugs and fish at the expense of humans and their livelihood.

When supporters said the bill would promote the use of good science in determining when and what species should be protected, Rep. Bruce Vento, D-Minn., shot back: “Science to some of you is what the Inquisition was to religion.”