[EMAIL PROTECTED] ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- The following statement was delivered to the House Resources Committee on Wednesday, Sept. 2o, in relation to the Young-Pombo bill to revise the US Endangered Species Act. STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN GERRY E. STUDDS ON HR 2275 September 20,1995 I would have liked to come here today to say that the bill before us represented a genuine effort to reform the Endangered Species Act. I can not. I wish I could tell you that this committee had undertaken something resembling an honest review of the statute. It has not. I had hoped that our proceedings might value science over anecdote, that we could all concede that matters as important and complex as this Act have shades of gray - or at the very least, we could show common respect to witnesses who actually might have differing views. We did not. I believe Members of this committee know that I am not given to shrill accusation. And given my decades-long friendship with the gentleman from Alaska, and our remarkable history of working cooperatively to reconcile our considerable differences, I scoured this bill for redeeming qualities. I can find none. As we convene this hearing, let us at least be clear about our intentions. This legislation constitutes, in substance, an outright repeal of the Endangered Species Act. If the subtext of the debate pits science against politics, then we now know who wins. This bill barely gives lip service to the overwhelming weight of testimony from respected scientists. Rather, it validates uncritically the pseudo-science purchased and packaged for us by special interests, which are aching to resume timbering on salmon streams and -- believe It or not --to require the United States government to seek permission from the likes of Muammar Khadhafi to protect threatened gazelles. We set out to heal an ailing Endangered Species Act. Instead, HR 2275 amputates its key provisions, then decapitates it. I am saddened to have to conclude that the results of our work over the past many months are as discouraging as the way in which we conducted that work - and I emphasize the word saddened. We have a long tradition in this institution of approaching this matter consistent with the huge bipartisan majorities in both Houses that originally sent this law to the White House, where President Richard Nixon signed it into law. That broad understanding and appreciation across the nation for the basic premises of this statute rest on the kind of comity and reflection that have now fled the scene. I hope we don't have to wait too long for their return. -- Ronald I. Orenstein Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home) International Wildlife Coalition Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116 (home) Home: 1825 Shady Creek Court Messages: (416) 368-4661 Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2 Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Office: 130 Adelaide Street W., Suite 1940 Toronto, Ontario Canada M5H 3P5
