Five Wildlife Related Bills Move to the House Floor

[Chris Merkord]

(Credit: Kevin McCoy/Wikimedia)

Last week, the House Committee on Natural Resources laid five wildlife related bills on the table for consideration by the full House of Representatives (HR 819, HR 910, HR 1080, HR 1300, and HR 1384).

Three of the bills — the Sikes Act reauthorization (HR 910), the issuance of a Wildlife Refuge System conservation semipostal stamp (HR 1384), and a bill that would allow pedestrian and motorized vehicular access in Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area (HR 819) — all passed the House Committee on Natural Resources without additional amendments.

Both HR 1080 and HR 1300 (the reauthorization of volunteer programs and community partnerships for the benefit of National Wildlife Refuges under the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956) passed the House Natural Resources Committee after amendments proposed by Rep. Fleming (R-LA) were added. HR 1080 amends the Sikes Act reauthorization to promote interagency cooperation in conservation programs to avoid or reduce adverse impacts on military readiness activities, including the use of Department of Defense (DOD) dollars for Sikes Act activities as matching funds for cooperative conservation projects off military lands. HR 1080 was introduced by Rep. Bordallo (D-GU).

Fleming amended HR 1300 by changing the reauthorization period from 2014 through 2018 to 2015 through 2017. HR 1080 passed through the committee after the addition of four amendments by Fleming. One amendment placed an expiration date of October 1, 2019 on HR 1080 while additional amendments include restrictions on how DOD dollars can be spent and provide for oversight on natural resource projects off military lands. The additional amendments prohibit the use of DOD dollars to acquire property not on a military installation for natural resource conservation projects, restrict the number of dollars that can be spent on project administrative fees to 3 percent of the total project cost, and call for the Inspector General of the DOD to annually audit natural resource projects using DOD funds that are not located on military installations. 

The archived webcast of the House Committee on Natural Resources’ markup of these bills is available for viewing.

Source: Full House Committee on Natural Resources’ Markup (May 15, 2013).   

View the full article from The Wildlife Society's Wildlife Policy News