Barbara Lee's Statement for the Congressional Record on H.R. 3824, an Effort to Gut the Endangered Species Act
Mr. Speaker, on September 29, 2005, I was unable to take part in roll call vote 506, the vote on final passage for H.R. 3824 because I was attending a constituent funeral. Had I been present, I would have voted ‘nay.’
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 3824, which is a threat to the recovery of endangered species.
Mr. Speaker, the original Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Nixon in 1973 with the goal of protecting species on the brink of extinction, preserving critical habitats from human development and exploitation, and safeguarding the diversity of our natural wildlife for future generations.
This bill would redefine the entire concept of the Endangered Species Act to protect the short term economic interests of western landowners and developers.
Instead of working to protect threatened or endangered species and their habitats for the benefit of everyone, the Federal government would now be driving the extinction of countless species-and your tax dollars would be paying for it.
We've got to ask ourselves who really needs to be protected here?Is it our planet, our future? Or is it the right of some developer to build a strip mall?
I urge my colleagues to vote against this cynical attempt to gut the endangered species act.