Rough Week on the Hill for Wildlife

This week wildlife suffered a double blow.

On Tuesday when the House of Representatives passed a bill that stripped environmental protections from enormous tracks of public lands along the U.S. border. This presents serious threats to wildlife by allowing Border Patrol to be excused from existing laws that protect sensitive areas such national parks and wildlife refuges.

The second blow came on Wednesday from the House Interior Department Appropriations Subcommittee. The subcommittee passed a bill that not only cuts the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) budget by more than 20 percent, it also forces a FWS decision on whether wolves in Wyoming be removed from the endangered species list.  Wyoming is a state that is planning extensive wolf killing programs once the species is delisted.

Defenders of Wildlife’s president, Jamie Rappaport Clark, blasted the measure in a statement:

“These are policy changes industry and conservatives alike have sought for years and the current state of the economy is only the latest excuse for pursuing their extreme agenda. It is yet another example of Congress kowtowing to the special interests and enacting shortsighted policies that leave the next generation holding the bill.”