A memo to Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., shows lobbyists
wrote most of a bill scaling back the Endangered Species Act. The
Feb. 28 memo from Gorton aide Julie Kays says in part: “The
coalitions delivered your ESA (Endangered Species Act) bill to me
on Friday” I know you are anxious to get the bill introduced.
However, it is important that we have a better than adequate
understanding of the bill prior to introduction.” Gorton says
although he asked ranchers, farmers and timber workers for advice,
the endangered species reform coalitions did not write the bill.
But Michael Bean of the Environmental Defense Fund says the groups
are composed mostly of powerhouse members such as Boise Cascade,
Chevron and Kaiser Aluminum, not residents of timber towns. “Quite
clearly the bill was written by the coalitions and their business
members for the senator,” Bean told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a congressional
watchdog group, says it’s not unusual for lobbyists to draft bills,
although Republicans promised they’d steer away from special
interests. Bean won’t say how he got a copy of the memo, but Gorton
aides acknowledged that it was authentic – and confidential. Gorton
says the goal of the bill, scheduled for introduction this spring,
is to bring “human values and human considerations’ into decisions
regarding the protection of endangered species.
*Elizabeth Manning
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Will the bill’s authors please stand?.
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