Cornyn Offers ESA Reform Bill

Sen. John Cornyn has introduced a bill to reform the listing procedure for the Endangered Species Act and change the way settlements are reached when environmentalists sue the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service to force a listing. The Texas Republican intends his “Endangered Species Act Settlement Reform Act” to limit the impact on individuals’ lives from legal settlements between special-interest groups and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). On introducing the bill, Cornyn issued a statement saying, “There must be a balance to ensure Washington bureaucrats don’t run roughshod over Texas landowners and job creators. This bill gives states and counties facing regulation a seat at the table with the FWS and special interest groups in ESA settlement negotiations.” The ESA Settlement Reform Act will give local governments and stakeholders a chance to have a say in ESA settlements affecting them, by requiring public notification when a lawsuit has been filed and allowing affected landowners and governments to intervene in the case. The bill would limit taxpayer liability by disallowing courts from awarding litigation costs when an out of court settlement or consent decree is reached. In addition, for settlements not involving a consent decree, the court would have to ensure the settlement does not include payments to plaintiffs for their litigation costs. Cornyn wrote the ESA reform in response to settlements the FWS made with two environmental groups in 2011 resulting in an accelerated “work plan” for the agency to determine whether hundreds of species merited endangered species listings by a specified deadline. This settlement required FWS to make these determinations outside of normal, transparent, ESA procedures. The settlement also required the federal government to pay the plaintiffs’ litigation fees. Duggan Flanakin, director of policy research for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, describes sue-and-settle as chicanery that violates the public interest. “The sweetheart sue-and-settle schemes by which environmentalists and bureaucrats collaborate to destroy the value of private and public property in the name of protecting species, often without any public comment, should be disallowed,” Flanakin said...more