10/26/05 ESA reform Senate preview, Finale

Endangered Species Act reform has already passed out of the House. It is now up to the Senate to move forward with the matter. And right now, key Senators leading the charge in E.S.A. reform, such as Idaho's Mike Crapo, are trying to determine the best approach. One thing is for certain, no matter how it is approached, all E.S.A. reform supporters agree there needs to be consensus. Not just bi-partisan support in the Senate. CRAPO: We are approaching this in the context of trying to build the necessary consensus both on a bi-partisan level in the Senate as well as in a bi-cameral way between the Senate and the House before we move forward. We also want to bring in to the whole process the private sector whether it be the private property owner interests or the environmental community and others and make sure we've got agreement before we introduce. And there is a reason this consensus building will be the key to any E.S.A. reform bill passing the Senate. E.S.A. reform bills have traditionally ran into opposition, even filibuster, resulting in a political death by the time sessions conclude. CRAPO: History has shown that that's exactly what has happened to ever proposal that has come forward so far. And so I would have to say that until we get that consensus that I'm talking about in the Senate that it will be difficult to move any bill. But while there are arguments for Senators to fully support the House version of the E.S.A. reform bill or in the case of Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island consider authoring his own bill, Crapo says the main thing is that there is aspects of the House bill that can and should be incorporated into any Senate E.S.A. reform measure. CRAPO: The House bill includes most of those. And so I think that we're going to be trying to refine the areas which we've been working on in the Senate for a long time now. And most of which have been picked up in the House bill and just find that sweet spot where we can move it. And Crapo says there is one other potential catalyst for E.S.A. reform bill movement in the Senate. CRAPO: Some of the landowner incentives that we might be able to work on or some of the Farm Bill programs in the conservation program that provide federal resources to help private property owners accomplish objectives for species management could be very critical so we have things like the wetlands program, the W.H.I.P. program and the Farm Bill and other conservation titles that I think could be very helpful in terms of recovering species. Crapo adds that measure should gain broad support, something that is needed to pass Endangered Species Act reform, and hopefully this year.