White House disregards another law

2008-08-17 05:24:16 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Law)



Washington, D.C. (WiredPRNews.com) — The Bush administration is believed to dislike the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and yet, it made no serious efforts to rewrite the popular laws in Congress. Instead, it has tried to achieve its goal by refusing to enforce the legislation.

As per an investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office, when government scientists took the decision that the proposed projects will be altered or completely stopped protecting endangered species, administration officials rewrote their scientific findings.

Similar conclusions have been met by the federal courts. Recently, 78 of the cases have been lodged, heard and settled since January 2001 in federal court. These cases claimed that the Bush administration had failed to abide by the Endangered Species Act. This administration has so far lost 77 of the cases filed against it, many of which were heard by judges who were appointed by Republican presidents.

Now, the Bush administration is trying out another way to gut the law and has thus proposed a rule change. “A narrow regulatory change” is what Dirk Kempthorne, the Interior Secretary calls it. He says it will strip the government scientist’s role in the review making the job of the federal projects, which is done in order to have a positive impact on the protected birds, animals, reptiles and fish.

The federal agencies, which proposed the projects, will also determine if these projects are prone to endanger those species that are protected by law. The idea and concept behind the independent reviews by biologists at National Marine Fisheries Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, which is the basic concept of Endangered Species Act, will disappear since there has been a long passage of time. Kempthorne claims that it is being done for efficiency purposes.

Wired Legal Reporter

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