Foxx on Endangered Species Act

Madame Virginia Foxx voted FOR (natch!) H.R. 3824 yesterday to weaken the "Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act."

We're not bothered so much by provisions in this law that would require the government to compensate property owners, if measures to protect species thwart development plans. Hell, the government is shelling out money to private interests for everything else these days!

What is much more bothersome is the provision in the law that would give political appointees the power to make some scientific determinations and stop "critical habitat" designations.

Giving compensation to landowners for loss of development is one thing. Turning over the mechanism for designating endangered and threatened species and their habitats to political hacks ... well, that's what we hate most about this present regime. They've politicized science. Why not endangered species too?

All of this for the moment is on hold, since the U.S. Senate has passed no version of this turn-back-the-clocks legislation, and the man in charge of writing it for the Senate, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, is not at all in favor of the House's approach.