WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee deserves credit for exploring ways to reauthorize, improve, and increase funding for the Endangered Species Act, but the National Wildlife Federation said the proposed Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2020 contain some provisions that may hinder rather than help species recovery. The National Wildlife Federation urged the committee to continue to identify targeted improvements to the Endangered Species Act that can garner bipartisan support, as well as broader mechanisms to address America’s wildlife crisis, including the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.

 “America’s wildlife are in crisis — with more than one-third of all species at-risk or vulnerable to potential extinction in the years ahead. Now more than ever, we absolutely must focus on saving thousands of species and creating tens of thousands of good jobs by investing in proactive, on-the-ground, collaborative conservation efforts, while we also work together to strengthen the Endangered Species Act,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “The Senate has shown — through the bipartisan passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act and the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act — that it can rally behind solutions on par with the problems we face.

“We are grateful for the critical conversations that Chairman Barrasso and the Environment and Public Works Committee are having about wildlife conservation, and we urge them to give the broader issue of wildlife conservation the same approach.”