Susan Combs Joins Trump’s Assault on the Endangered Species Act

While the national news media has been fixated on President Donald Trump’s Russian connections, failures on tax and health care revisions, and the lack of his promised border wall, his administration has been building a U.S. Department of Interior team to effectively dismantle the Endangered Species Act. Trump’s latest addition is the appointment of former Texas Comptroller Susan Combs as assistant secretary of interior for policy, management, and budget. A Vassar College graduate from a ranching family in Brewster County, Combs is no stranger to the critter versus people wars. Combs has been vocal in her opposition to how the Endangered Species Act, signed into law by President Nixon in 1973, has been implemented. Environmentalists have used the law not only to protect individual species of plants and animals for their sake as well as genetic diversity, but also to protect natural areas from development and industrial activity. Fundamentally, for Combs, this has meant the federal government puts animals ahead of property owner rights. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, which administers the act, is an agency within the Department of Interior. “Susan Combs’ appointment as assistant secretary of the Interior is not welcome news for conservation,” said Joan Marshall, executive director of the Travis Audubon Society, in an email. “Combs and the Trump administration aim to roll back environmental protections in the name of economic progress. … If we manage nature for short-sighted, short-term gains, nothing will be left for future generations.”...more

They better be worried. We have worked together on several projects, and not only is she a joy to work with, the lady is intelligent and knows how to get things done. Sic'em Susan.