[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 881 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 881
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Endangered
Species Act of 1973.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 21, 2023
Mr. Beyer (for himself, Mr. Grijalva, Mrs. Dingell, Mr. Thompson of
California, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. DelBene, Mr. Smith
of Washington, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Titus, Ms.
Stansbury, Mr. Carbajal, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Mr. Magaziner, and Mr.
Soto) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Endangered
Species Act of 1973.
Whereas Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in December 1973 by a vote of
92-0 in the Senate and 355-4 in the House of Representatives;
Whereas President Richard Nixon, upon signing the Endangered Species Act into
law, stated, ``Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation
than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been
blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars,
scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the
heritage we all share as Americans [and] which we hold in trust to
countless future generations of our fellow citizens.'';
Whereas decades of polling have shown strong bipartisan support for the
Endangered Species Act, with more than 4 out of 5 Americans in favor of
it;
Whereas the Endangered Species Act is one of the most successful conservation
laws ever enacted by any country, and 99 percent of species protected
under the Act have been saved from extinction, including the humpback
whale, grizzly bear, and bald eagle;
Whereas thanks to the Endangered Species Act, gray whales still swim our coasts,
peregrine falcons still soar our skies, and polar bears still roam the
Arctic tundra;
Whereas the Act is currently helping protect and recover more than 2,000 species
of plants and animals that are threatened or endangered;
Whereas section 2(b) of the Endangered Species Act incorporates habitat
conservation by stating that one of the purposes of the Act is ``to
provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and
threatened species depend may be conserved'';
Whereas the Endangered Species Act provides added benefits to people by
maintaining healthy natural systems that provide us with clean air and
water, food, medicines, and other benefits that we all need to live
healthy lives;
Whereas the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services published a study in 2019 that estimated 25 percent
of assessed taxa of plants and animals and 10 percent of insects, which
account for 75 percent of all species, could be threatened with
extinction;
Whereas, globally, 1,000,000 animal and plant species face extinction within the
coming decades, and millions more are declining as habitat loss, climate
change, wildlife exploitation, pollution, and other human activities
continue to threaten their survival;
Whereas North America alone has lost nearly 3,000,000,000 birds since 1970,
which is more than 1 in 4 birds that have disappeared from the landscape
in a mere half a century, and in that same timeframe, global wildlife
populations have declined by an average of 69 percent;
Whereas, in the United States, nearly half of all ecosystems are at risk of
range-wide collapse;
Whereas, as of October 2023, a total of 2,363 species of animals and plants were
listed as either endangered or threatened, and 1,668 of all listed
species occur in the United States and its territories, and the
remainder (695 species) occur solely in other countries;
Whereas the unraveling of the natural world remains a fundamental threat to the
well-being of all humanity, which depends on millions of species and the
countless services that the web of life provides, and each extinction
brings closer the collapse of these planetary life-support systems,
including carbon sequestration, pollination, water purification, oxygen
production, and disease regulation;
Whereas the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that climate change
has caused local species losses, increases in disease (high confidence),
and mass mortality events of plants and animals (very high confidence),
resulting in the first climate-driven extinctions (medium confidence),
ecosystem restructuring, increases in areas burned by wildfire (high
confidence), and declines in key ecosystem services (high confidence);
Whereas the planet is experiencing a biodiversity crisis, which many scientists
conclude is the sixth mass extinction event, with plant and wildlife
species across the globe facing heightened risk of extinction that is
largely driven by human activity;
Whereas the United States has prioritized the conservation of imperiled species
by enacting the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and other landmark
conservation statutes; and
Whereas the recovery of species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 is a
remarkable success that should be celebrated: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives commemorates the 50th
anniversary of the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
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