The GOP blasted the Obama administration’s eleventh-hour attempt to place a chicken-sized bird back on the endangered species list after a federal court said it had to come off.
“It’s no surprise the Obama administration is disregarding last year’s court ruling and pushing more listings at the behest of radical environmental groups,” said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. “Jamming through decisions with questionable scientific support in the eleventh hour is a fitting end to the administration’s failed agenda.”
Bishop was the first to oppose the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Tuesday decision to take up a petition by several prominent environmental groups to give full protection under the Endangered Species Act to the once-endangered prairie chicken. The agency’s decision was published in Wednesday’s Federal Register, marking the official beginning of its review process.
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s initial review of the green groups’ petition begins the countdown to potentially re-listing the lesser prairie chicken as endangered. The agency removed the bird from the endangered species list in July after federal judges ordered it to do so in 2015.
Placing the bird back on the endangered species list would designate millions of acres of private land as protected habitat in several western states, including Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico. It would make it more difficult for land developers, ranchers and oil and natural gas producers to conduct their business, which is one of the reasons the agency was taken to court.
Bishop said he looks forward to working with the incoming Trump administration on reforming the endangered species law “to ensure science and state input guide federal policy and prevent special interest litigants from blocking economic growth while paralyzing species recovery efforts.”
A similar species that also has been a Republican target is the sage grouse, which, like the prairie chicken, requires millions of acres of protected land.
Debate over the status of the sage grouse is major sticking point in passing a massive defense spending bill by the end of the year. Republicans had inserted a provision to ensure the bird could never be placed on the endangered species list, even though the Interior Department has installed a plan that protects the bird without listing it.
On Wednesday, however, lawmakers said they had removed the sage grouse measures from the bill, and the defense bill is slated to be voted on in the House on Friday. The Senate is scheduled to take up the bill next week.
