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- 000262 Endaneered Species Act BACKGROUND The authorization of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 expired in 1992, however the Act remains active due to annual operation appropriations by Congress. Attempts in the last four Congresses to reauthorize and reform the Act by various House and Senate legislation have all failed. In the 102nd and 103rd Congresses, legislation introduced by Congressman Billy Tauzin, then a Democrat and a member of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, was not granted a vote at the subcommittee level. Representative Tauzin's legislation was supported property rights and state law primacy. However, the Democratic Leadership, while acknowledging problems existing with the Act, were convinced Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had the matter under control. The election of the l04th Congress brought a change of control. For the first time in 40 years, Republicans held the majority in the House and the Senate returned to Republican control for the first time since the Reagan Administration. A new direction and momentum on ESA !~gislation was evident from the beginning of that Congress. Congressman Don Young (R-AK), an outspoken critic of the ESA, became chairman of the House Resources Committee, the very committee given jurisdiction over the ESA with the elimination of the Merchant Marine and Firsheries Committee. Chairman Young promptly hired Ms. Elizabeth Megginson to staff his efforts on reforming the ESA. Ms. Megginson was previously employed by Congressman Tauzin and responsible for both of his ESA bills. In addition, Chairman Young established the ESA Task Force and appointed Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA) as the chairman. Congressman Pombo, a rancher by profession, ran for Congress on ESA issues. Under his leadership, the task force held over 25 hearings in Washington, DC and around the nation during its six month existence. The result of the their efforts was a comprehensive bill of over 80 pages in length. The bill, H.R. 2275, contained water rights, state water law primacy and exemptions from Section 7 consultations for the operation and maintenance of water projects. Nearly every issue of NWRA was addressed by H.R. 2275. However, the bill was reported from the House Resources Committee on a strictly partisan vote and was never granted floor time. Viewed as an "extreme" bill, moderate Republicans and Democrats were successful in convincing the Republican Leadership that H.R. 2275 would fail a vote on the House floor. The most recent and "passable" legislative attempt was the Endangered Species Recovery Act of 1997, S. 1180. This legislation represented nearly three years of work championed by former Senator Dirk Kempthome (R-ID). As chairman of the subcommittee on Drinking Water, Fisheries and Wildlife, Senator Kempthorne worked to build a biprtisan coalition of support for his legislation. He was successful in developing a legislative package cosponsored and introduced by Senators John Chaffee (R- R!), Max Baucus (D-MT) and Harry Reid (D-NV), the chairman and ranking members respectfully of the Senator Environment and Public Works Committee. . As a point of consensus among the other co-sponsors of the legislation, Senator Kempthorne had to exclude water rights and state water law primacy language from the bill. NWRA's ESA Task Force voted to provide support for S. 1180 with the understanding that additional amendments would be pursued at the appropriate time. Although S. 1180 was reported from committee by a bipartisan vote in October of 1997, funding and problems with the Senate Republican Leadership soon caused the bill to lose momentum. Eventually, the bill fell victim to scheduling problems and demands by the Senate Leader. Senator Kempthorne's decision to leave the Senate and run for the governorship of Idaho was a contributing factor to the bill's demise. A final attempt to move the legislation as a rider on the omnibus spending bill was killed by House Republicans.