2023 Species Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker I thank the chairman for hosting this discussion on the ESA tonight, it could not be more timely to deal with this issue.

Mr. Speaker, 50 years ago the Endangered Species Act was created to protect endangered species by taking actions to put them on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, the Endangered Species Act has become a statutory ``Hotel California'' where radical environmental groups and judges check animals into the endangered species list, but they may never leave.

In fact, over the last 50 years, out of the 1,389 listed species, only 72 have been recovered and removed from the list, as the chairman so eloquently stated in his opening remarks--a 5 percent recovery rate.

Let me be clear, you endanger the Endangered Species Act when you do not remove species that have recovered. As everyone in Wisconsin knows, this is something we have seen far too often as it relates to the gray wolf.

When Federal protections were established for wolves in the Great Lakes region, population levels were in the hundreds. Now there are well over 4,000 in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Most recently, a California activist judge unilaterally put the gray wolf back on the Endangered Species Act list despite its recovery. The judge's decision went against the 26 scientists--beside me here--that have urged for the gray wolf to be removed from the ESA since 2015.

Here they are. There are 26 eminent wildlife biologists that nearly a decade ago said to a judge here in Washington D.C., you are making a mistake re-listing the wolf. Let's allow management by the States where they can be most effectively managed.

The data is clear, we have waited long enough. Congress must pass my bill that I introduced alongside Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. The Trust the Science Act would delist gray wolves in the lower 48 United States and would preclude any future re-listing mischief by activist judges.

When a species is removed from the ESA list, it is something we should celebrate. It is a success story. When a species has recovered, it enables us to use our limited time and resources to concentrate our efforts to protect and recover other species that truly are under threat or at risk of extinction.

Over the last 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has failed to be a celebration of recovery, and instead, a political weapon. It is past time we change that and turned the Endangered Species Act into something all Americans can celebrate--endangered species success stories.

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