For Change Of Pace, A Success Story Lawmaker Tells Positive Story During Panel Hearing On Endangered Species Act

One lawmaker after another went before a House panel Wednesday telling horror stories about the way the Endangered Species Act has harmed private property owners and land developers in their states.

Then came Rep. Curt Weldon, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

“I have no horror stories today. I have a success story,” Weldon told the House Resources Committee’s task force on the act.

Weldon related the story of a 6-year-old Pennsylvania girl, Jackie Buckley, who was diagnosed with leukemia three years ago with a slim chance of living to adulthood.

Now, “she has a 99 percent chance of living a long, productive life - thanks to a cancer-fighting medicine derived from a rare wildflower,” he said.

Extract from the rosy periwinkle plant put her disease in remission and “has shed important new light on the importance of our natural resources,” the congressman said.

The Pacific yew tree yields taxol, a drug used in treating ovarian and breast cancers, he said. The purple foxglove plant has provided heart medicine. The Australian mulberry and the Cameroon vine tree appear to produce AIDS-fighting compounds, Weldon said.

“We are just beginning to discover the medicinal value of our plant species. The Endangered Species Act plays an important role in protecting these resources from danger,” he said.

The panel is collecting testimony on the act in preparation for drafting overhaul legislation later this spring. A measure introduced in the Senate on Tuesday would ease the law’s requirements, allowing the secretaries of interior and commerce to decide whether to try to save a species from extinction.

Reps. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, and Wes Cooley, R-Ore. - both members of the panel - challenged Weldon’s conclusions. They favor sweeping changes in the act.

Chenoweth said the rosy periwinkle grows only in Madagascar and the purple foxglove never has been protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Cooley said he worked 27 years in the pharmaceutical industry and that studies worldwide already were common to determine the medicinal value of plants.

“If the Endangered Species Act is so important to the pharmaceutical industry, whey aren’t they here?” Cooley asked.

Weldon said it was because only members of Congress were testifying Wednesday before the task force.

“My point is we simply do not know the future medicinal value of our plant species until further studies are completed,” Weldon said.

The American electorate sent a message to Washington, D.C., last fall “that they were not only fed up with overzealous federal regulations, but also fed up with Washington bureaucrats who were out of touch with the real world,” Weldon said.

“Jackie Buckley represents the real world and it is imperative that we do not take a wrecking ball to the Endangered Species Act,” he said.

Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., said protection of the loach minnow blocked repair of roads and bridges in Arizona. And Rep. Ed Bryant, R-Tenn., said protection of the Cumberland Monkeyface Pearly Mussel has prevented construction of a needed dam in Tennessee.

Reps. Bruce Vento, D-Minn., and Elizabeth Furse, D-Ore., defended the act.

“The Endangered Species Act works,” said Vento, a panel member. “Some changes should be made but the core of the law and its goals should remain intact.”