U.S. Congress moves wolves off of endangered species list- a legislative first

Congress for the first time is directly intervening in the Endangered Species List and removing an animal from it, establishing a precedent for political influence over the list that has outraged environmental groups.

A rider to the Congressional budget measure agreed to last weekend dictates that wolves in Montana and Idaho be taken off the endangered species list and managed instead by state wildlife agencies, which is in direct opposition to a federal judge’s recent decision forbidding the Interior Department to take such an action.

While the language on the Rocky Mountain wolves was a tiny item in budgetary terms, environmental groups said it set an unnerving precedent by letting Congress, rather than a science-based federal agency, remove endangered species protections.

The rider is the first known instance of Congress’ directly intervening in the list. While Congress overrode the protections extended to a tiny Tennessee fish called the snail darter about two decades ago, it did so by authorizing the construction of a dam that had originally been tabled to protect the fish. In that case, Congress did not overturn scientists’ findings about the fish’s viability.

There are myriad restrictions and budget cuts for environmental initiatives in the proposed budget. Most appeared modest compared to the more drastic cutbacks in the original House budget. Federal agencies were still working through the extensive and complex list provided by Congress on Tuesday, trying to determine what their impact might be.

Among the cuts were $49 million from programs relating to climate change, $438 million from programs supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy, $638 million from environmental cleanup efforts by the Defense Department and $997 million from revolving funds through which the Environmental Protection Agency provides money for local water treatment and pollution cleanup programs.

The budget rider on the wolves, backed by two Western legislators — Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, and Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho — requires the Interior Department to adopt its earlier plan, removing wolves from the endangered list in those two states because it deemed that the states’ management plans, which include hunts of the animals, were acceptable.

The rider also precluded judicial review of this provision.

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