To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
Protect The Endangered Species Act From Congressional Attacks
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of our nation's most effective and important environmental laws. Passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, the ESA represents a commitment by the American people to work together to protect and restore our most vulnerable fellow species.
Please OPPOSE all efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act and bill S. 1731/H.R. 3533, which would harm imperiled species by:
- Automatically removing them from the lists of endangered and threatened species after five years, whether or not they've recovered.
- Letting politics win over science by requiring that state governors give their consent before species in their states can be listed under the ESA, and requiring a joint resolution of Congress to approve the listing of species as threatened or endangered.
- Undermining citizens' ability to enforce the ESA in court and to help protect imperiled species by filing citizen listing petitions.
Why is this important?
December 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, one of the world's strongest and most effective wildlife protection laws.
Unfortunately, just at this time when we celebrate four decades of success with the ESA, a bill that could rightly be called the “Extinction Act” has been introduced by anti-environment lawmakers in the House and Senate (H.R. 3533 / S. 1731). This bill would gut the ESA and put imperiled species at greater risk.
This bill would harm imperiled species by:
- Automatically removing them from the lists of endangered and threatened species after five years, whether or not they've recovered.
- Letting politics win over science by requiring that state governors give their consent before species in their states can be listed under the ESA, and requiring a joint resolution of Congress to approve the listing of species as threatened or endangered.
- Undermining citizens' ability to enforce the ESA in court and to help protect imperiled species by filing citizen listing petitions.