Congressman Dennis Cardoza
18th Congressional District of California

“We’ve seen the effects of unreasonable critical habitat designations, which cause unnecessary impacts to agriculture and other landowners, as well as to local governments and to the economy,” Cardoza said.  “Today’s passage brings us one step closer to making critical habitat designations work properly.”

Cardoza’s bill, H.R. 2933, which passed the committee by a vote of 28-14, would streamline Fish & Wildlife Service’s procedures by requiring the Service to designate critical habitat within three years of a species’ listing or within one year of the approval of a recovery plan.  This would give the Service ample time to gather biological and economic data to make a sound decision on the appropriate land needed as critical habitat for the listed species.

In addition, the legislation aims to tighten and define the critical habitat designation process in order to reduce the amount of litigation by private interests against the Service and to truly protect and conserve the species in question.

Due primarily to budget shortfalls, the Service has been unable to comply with mandated deadlines imposed by the Endangered Species Act for completing critical habitat designations.  In response, private litigants have repeatedly sued the Service because it has failed to meet these deadlines.  These lawsuits have then subjected the Service to an increasing series of court orders and court-approved settlement agreements.

Compliance with these court actions now consumes nearly the entire listing program budget.

This leaves the Service with little ability to prioritize its activities or to direct scarce listing resources to program actions most urgently needed to conserve species.

“We need a system that encourages the gathering of information that will help the Service to make better, more informed decisions about designations and how to actually preserve species,” Cardoza said.

H.R. 2933 also gives state and local governments as well as landowners more input and participation in the designation.  Cardoza’s bill directs the Service to expand its current analysis of critical habitat to include data from landowners and local governments such as current land use maps as well as direct, indirect and cumulative costs and benefits to such a designation.

“Fostering a continued sense of community involvement and participation is an important and often overlooked component of species protection,” Cardoza said.  “Information is the key – the more data, the better informed the decision.”

A vote on the bill in the full House is expected before the end of the year.