House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings released the following statement after the House passed the Endangered Species Act (ESA) amendment offered by Rep. Norm Dicks to the FY 2012 Interior Appropriations bill:

“The House worked its will on this particular amendment, yet this conversation highlighted the fact that the Endangered Species Act hasn’t been updated in 23 years and Congress needs to do its job to reauthorize the law. The conversation begun this week will continue. The Natural Resources Committee will move forward in the fall to examine the law by listening to citizens affected by, and interested in, the ESA. The law is expired, failing to achieve its fundamental goal of species recovery, and has become a tool for expensive debilitating lawsuits. We have a duty to act on the ESA’s reauthorization and it needs to be updated in a calm, careful and bipartisan way.”

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