On Wednesday, February 14th, the House Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries held a legislative hearing on several bills, including H.R. 6784, the ESA Flexibility Act, sponsored by Representative Pete Stauber (R-MN-08). This bill would provide the Secretary of the Interior greater flexibility in creating management plans for threatened and endangered species. Steve Guertin, Deputy Director for Program Management and Policy for the US Fish and Wildlife Service defended the Administrations current positions on species management. SCI thanks the Committee for considering the legislation and thanks Representative Stauber for this proposal to modernize the Endangered Species Act and create a more efficient strategy for wildlife management.
The Committee also considered H.R. 6854, the Habitat Enhancement Now (HEN) Act, sponsored by Representative Fishbach (R-MN-07), which creates new grant programs for the protection of migratory waterfowl in the US. Earlier this month, SCI joined our partners in the American Wildlife Conservation Partnership in a letter to the Congressional Sportsman Caucus to support this bill.
See the full hearing HERE.
On Thursday, February 15th, the House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing titled “Bidenomics & Land Management: The Misguided National Strategy to Develop Environmental Economic Decisions.” The lone witness in attendance was Henry Wykowski, Advisor of the Bureau of Land Management. Leadership from the Department of Commerce, the Office of Management and Budget, and Office of Science and Technology Policy declined to attend. A focus of the questioning was aimed at the Biden Administration’s national capital accounting strategy and the possibility of investment in “natural capital assets” to be used to lock up public land and allow the restriction of hunting and recreation.
See the full hearing HERE.
