From Dan Keppen, Family Farm Alliance Executive Director, on ESA Implementation Hearing, 'Science or Politics?'

HERE for testimony of STATEMENT OF P. LYNN SCARLETT, DEPUTY SECRETARY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES, REGARDING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF 1973, MAY 9, 2007

May 10, 2007

Joe Raeder, the Family Farm Alliance’s Washington, D.C. representative, prepared the following summary of yesterday’s House Natural Resources Committee hearing on "Endangered Species Act Implementation: Science or Politics?"  

Purpose of Hearing

The hearing was originally conceived to examine charges that Julie MacDonald, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior, had overridden science-based ESA decisions for political reasons and that she had improperly released Department documents to private interests.   However, with MacDonald's resignation last week, the focus of the hearing shifted to the Bush Administration's efforts to revise regulations for implementing the ESA.

Key Statements

Attached are the hearing statements of Committee Chairman Nick Rahall and Lynn Scarlett, Deputy Secretary of Interior.   Also attached is an article about a letter that USFWS Director Dale Hall sent to Chairman Rahall explaining the Administration's efforts to revise ESA regulations.  Hall refused to give the committee a copy of the draft regulations, saying that they were still a work-in-progress.  He said that the Administration plans to move forward on the rewrite.

Witnesses  

Below is a witness list from the hearing.  Copies of testimony and statements are available at the Committee's website:    http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/hearings/hearingdetail.aspx?NewsID=7

Panel 1

·         The Honorable P. Lynn Scarlett, Deputy Secretary, Department of the Interior

·         Ms. Jamie Rappaport Clark, Executive Vice President, Defenders of Wildlife

·         Dr. Francesca Grifo, Ph.D., Senior Scientist and Director of Scientific Integrity Program, Union of Concerned Scientists

·         Mr. Jeff Ruch, Executive Director, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

Panel 2

·         Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, Ph.D., Executive Director, Conservation Science & Policy, National Center for Conservation Science & Policy

·         Ms. Judith Schoyer Rodd, Director, Friends of Blackwater

·         Mr. John Young, Retired Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

·         Mr. William P. Horn, Birch, Horton, Bittner & Cherot

Dan Keppen
Executive Director
Family Farm Alliance