{
  "id": "RL33309",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL33309",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 319698,
      "date": "2006-03-13",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T19:08:59.955029",
      "title": "Reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act (ESA): A Comparison of Pending Bills and a Proposed Amendment with Current Law",
      "summary": "The Endangered Species Act (ESA) protects species that are determined to be either endangered\nor\nthreatened according to assessments of their risk of extinction. The ESA has not been reauthorized\nsince September 30, 1992, and efforts to do so have been controversial and complex. Some\nobservers assert that the current ESA is a failure because few species have recovered, and that it\nunduly and unevenly restricts the use of private lands. Others assert that since the act's passage, few\nspecies have become extinct, many have improved, and that restrictions to preserve species do not\nplace a greater burden on landowners than many other federal, state, and local laws. \n This report provides a side-by-side analysis of two bills and a proposed amendment that would\namend the ESA. This analysis compares  H.R. 3824 , the Threatened and Endangered\nSpecies Recovery Act of 2005, as passed by the House; proposed House Amendment 588 to H.R.\n 3824 (Miller/Boehlert Amendment); and  S. 2110 , the Collaboration for the\nRecovery of Endangered Species Act.\n Proponents of each proposal indicate that it is designed to make the ESA more effective by\nredefining the relationship between private and public property uses and species protection,\nimplementing new incentives for species conservation, and removing what some see as undue land\nuse restrictions. Thus, all three proposals contain provisions meant to encourage greater voluntary\nconservation of species by states and private landowners, a concept that has been supported by many\nobservers. Further, all three proposals would modify or eliminate certain procedural or other\nelements of the current ESA that some have viewed as significant protections and prohibitions,\nincluding eliminating or changing the role of \"critical habitat\" (CH) (which would eliminate one\naspect of the current consultation process); making the listing of all threatened and endangered\nspecies more difficult or less likely; expanding Section 10 permits allowing incidental take (which\ncould incur a greater need for agency oversight and enforcement); and expanding state rather than\nfederal implementation of ESA programs (which might make oversight more difficult). Proponents\nof these changes assert that tighter listing standards would enable a better focus on species with the\nmost dire needs, and that other measures would achieve recovery of more species. Critics argue that\nproposed changes create gaps in the ESA safety net of protections and prohibitions. \n It is difficult to assess whether, on balance, the proposals would be likely to achieve greater\nprotection and recovery of species, or to what extent the controversies over land use constraints\nwould diminish. However, replacing some of the protections of the current ESA with new\nincentives, rather than adding the new incentives to the current protections, arguably makes adequate\nfunding of the new programs more critical to determining the outcome of the ESA.\n This report will be updated as events warrant.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Environmental Policy",
    "Foreign Affairs"
  ]
}