On Wednesday, Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-1) successfully offered an amendment to H.R. 2584, the Interior-Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2012, that will preserve essential federal protections for America’s endangered and threatened species.

Specifically, Rep. Thompson’s amendment removed language – known as the Extinction Rider – that would have prevented the Fish and Wildlife Service from spending any funding to list new plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

“We’ve been trying to get more species off the endangered species list for years, and the majority party is leading the way,” said Rep. Thompson. “Unfortunately, their strategy is to prevent endangered species from being listed as endangered in the first place. The Extinction Rider is so ridiculous that it would be comical, but for the dangerous effect it would have on imperiled species that are struggling to survive.”

“It is our responsibility to be good stewards of this earth and prevent the extinction of wildlife, plants, and fish,” Rep. Thompson added. “The sad truth is that once we lose a species we will never get it back. That is why we need to allow for science-based policies and recovery plans for imperiled species instead of allowing politics to drive listing decisions and activities.”

Congressman Thompson co-authored his amendment to remove the Extinction Rider from H.R. 2584 with Reps. Norm Dicks (D-WA), Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI). 37 Republicans joined Congressman Thompson and over 180 of his Democratic colleagues in supporting the amendment, which was approved by the House in a 224-202 vote.

“I applaud my colleagues, particularly the Republicans, for joining me to fight this misguided legislation,” Rep. Thompson said. “Many of my colleagues are truly invested in saving our natural resources, and I was impressed by their impassioned remarks in support of my amendment. Their efforts will ensure that our endangered and threatened species are protected for the future.”

If the Extinction Rider had been in effect 44 years ago, the American bald eagle, our national bird, would be extinct. In the 1960s, there were less than 450 nesting pairs of bald eagles. But thanks to the Endangered Species Act, this national symbol was removed from the endangered species list in 2007 and now there are nearly 10,000 nesting pairs of bald eagles.

A more local example of the ESA’s positive impact is the Aleutian goose. In 1967, there were no more than a few hundred of these birds left in the wild. ESA protections allowed the Aleutian goose population to rebound, to a population of more than 100,000 birds in 2008. In fact, the ESA recovery effort was so successful that the Aleutian goose was delisted in 2001 and is today being hunted in Humboldt and Del Norte counties.

In addition to the Extinction Rider, H.R. 2584 contains nearly 40 other anti-environment policy riders, including provisions that would:

• Block protections for more than 1 million acres of land around the Grand Canyon, leaving them open to toxic uranium mining.

• Prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from implementing the just-finalized Cross-State Pollution Rule, which protects communities from dangerous pollution from power plants upwind of them.

• Indefinitely stop long-overdue standards to control toxic mercury air pollution from power plants, endangering pregnant women, infants and children.

• Block EPA from moving forward with standards for new vehicles after 2016 that would reduce our foreign oil imports and cut pollution.

• Allow oil companies to pollute more when drilling offshore by weakening the Clean Air Act and exempting polluting support vessels from regulation.

Thompson represents California’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, and portions of Sonoma and Yolo counties. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Rep. Thompson is also a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and Co-Chair of the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus.

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