{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/idaho-senators-join-effort-to-protect-western-way-of-life", "Idaho Senators Join Effort to Protect Western Way of Life", "2023-09-14", "2023", "2023-09", "Republican", "Senate", "ID", "Mike Crapo", "C000880", "www.crapo.senate.gov", "crapo", "https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senate Western Caucus members Mike Crapo and Jim Risch (both R-Idaho) joined Senate Western Caucus Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) and Congressional Western Caucus Chair Dan Newhouse (R-Washington) in introducing legislation to prevent the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce from finalizing three rule proposals and to retain the Trump-era regulations within the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The legislation will preserve legal clarity to landowners and businesses out West while also ensuring that the ESA effectively manages wildlife.\n\n\u201cWildlife species should be protected and recovered when possible, but the ESA as written has had very limited success,\u201d said Crapo. \u201cThe Biden Administration\u2019s rollback of 2019 reforms will only create more red tape and burdensome regulations that will hinder recovery and conservation efforts. Idaho\u2019s farmers, ranchers and conservationists need more support--not additional regulatory cudgels--to make on-the-ground decisions most successful at proper wildlife management practices.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Biden administration is abusing the Endangered Species Act to institute burdensome regulations that put Idaho\u2019s farming, ranching, mining, and other land management projects in the crosshairs,\u201d said Risch. \u201cWith Senator Lummis, I am introducing legislation to protect wildlife and critical projects in the West from these heavy handed changes and, instead, keep a tailored, commonsense approach to species recovery.\u201d\n\nAdditional co-sponsors of the Senate legislation include U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).\n\nClick here to read the bill text.\n\nBackground:\n\nIn 2019, The Trump Administration finalized key changes to the Endangered Species Act that added more flexibility for affected stakeholders while also ensuring species\u2019 recovery plans take a tailored and targeted approach. Last month, the Biden Administration moved to repeal and replace these changes, which are detailed below.\n\nBlanket Rule Elimination\n\nThe 2019 revisions eliminated the \u201cblanket rule\u201d under Section 4(d) that automatically provides endangered level protections to species listed only as threatened.\n\nNow, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are required to manage threatened species with specifically tailored plans, leading to less flexibility for landowners and stakeholders.\n\nThe Biden proposal would reinstate the blanket rule, essentially treating all threatened species as endangered once again.\n\nCritical Habitat Changes\n\nThe 2019 revisions allow FWS and NOAA to research and share the economic impacts of a listing determination under the ESA.\n\nIt also provides flexibility in defining critical habitat, allowing the agencies leeway to only designate unoccupied areas as critical habitat if necessary.\n\nUnder the Biden proposal, the agencies are no longer able to share or disseminate information on the economic impact of a listing.\n\nMore alarmingly, the proposal mandates the agencies must again designate unoccupied areas as critical habitat.\n\nSection 7 Changes\n\nAmong the numerous changes to Section 7, the rule established standards to ensure effects analysis for proposed actions is limited to only \u201cactivities that are reasonably certain to occur.\u201d\n\nThis takes away the leeway for agencies to assume worst case scenarios for a species without \u201cclear and substantial information\u201d and is intended to provide a more realistic and flexible approach to benefitting a listed species.\n\nThe Biden rule would eliminate this clarification.\n\nOn August 1, 2023, Crapo and Risch signed a letter to the FWS and NOAA asking for a comment period extension for the three rules that would roll back the Trump Administration\u2019s ESA reforms.\n\nOn May 11, 2023, the United States Senate passed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution supported by Crapo and Risch would overturn the Biden Administration\u2019s ESA rule related to critical habitat. The CRA awaits consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/idaho-senators-join-effort-to-protect-western-way-of-life"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8933651261031628, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}