Tom McClintock Slams Lack of Transparency in Endangered Species Act (ESA)

The Need for Transparency in ESA Listings

• 💡 HR 180 aims to address the frustration of state and local governments and private citizens over the science used for Endangered Species Act (ESA) listings.
• 🔑 The core issue is that important scientific data is often ignored or obscured, preventing proper scientific scrutiny.
• 🔬 True science requires transparency, allowing for inquiry, challenge, and replication to ensure credibility.

Secrecy Undermining ESA Credibility

• ⚠️ For years, findings supporting ESA listings have been shrouded in secrecy, which prevents challenges and undermines the law's credibility.
• 📉 This secrecy can lead to misleading policy decisions that negatively impact livelihoods and the law's respectability.
• 📊 The Obama administration alone added 395 new listings in eight years, yet the supporting science is often not made public.

Flaws in ESA Science and Data

• 📈 Less than 2% of listed species have recovered, and many recoveries were due to errors in the original listing science, not ESA protections.
• 🗣️ Committee reports and testimony from local entities highlight concerns about the unavailability of reports used for controversial listing decisions.
• 🏛️ Federal agencies have been known to ignore locally generated science, sometimes requiring court orders to obtain taxpayer-funded study data.

Proposed Solutions and Benefits of Transparency

• 🌐 The legislation proposes requiring the US Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to post supporting data online.
• 🤝 It also calls for considering data submitted by state, local, and tribal governments.
• 💻 Making data accessible will enlist broader expertise to evaluate and critique decisions, revealing major flaws in data and analysis.
• ⚖️ The bill also aims to conform ESA litigation to the Equal Access to Justice Act, limiting excessive attorney fees.
• ✅ Transparency will instill accountability, allow for review of data and science, and help ensure the ESA reflects 21st-century advances for species recovery.