02/16/05 E.S.A. reform collaberation, Pt 1

One of the reasons why reform of the Endangered Species Act has been a slow, and in some people's opinion, almost non-existent process, has been the lack of collaborate efforts to make E.S.A. a more balanced approach between species recovery efforts and human economic and social needs. And that isn't just the desired collaborations between environmental, economical, and landowner interests. In Congress, known as a place to hold a debate or two, there has not been a united front per se to address E.S.A. reform from the standpoint of giving the humans some breaks while still addressing species recovery & not that it hasn't been tried in the past. But recently, a group of Senators and Representatives announced that they were going to give the issue of E.S.A. reform another try. So what is different this time? Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho says in the past while several Congressional types, including himself, addressed E.S.A. reform on their own in the form of bills introduced for consideration, this time there will be that collaborative effort. CRAPO: The key here is that we are going to be standing together, working together, and coordinating with each other to make sure that we have a consistent approach as we move forward that can be one in which we assure we have bi-partisanship, we assure that we work collectively between the House and the Senate, and we move as effectively as possible toward achieving real Endangered Species Act reform. As alluded to earlier such an effort was made by Congress previously, centered on a bill introduced in the late 1990's by then Senator Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho. As Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee recalled, that bill had bi-partisan support in the broadest sense of the term, with co-sponsors ranging from his own father, conservative Senators such as Idaho's Larry Craig and Oregon's Gordon Smith, and more liberal thinking lawmakers like current Senator Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. CHAFEE: It did go to committee and there it passed out of the committee. Senator Lott, the Majority Leader at the time, said he'd give it floor time if we could get it through the House. Those negotiations didn't occur but obviously there was some momentum that was leaning towards a good bi-partisan bill. And I think S-1180 is a good starting point for where we go forward. So why is this new collaborative effort hold so much promise in addressing the long contentious issue of Endangered Species Act reform? It may be because even environmentalists could get on board with this. More in our next program.