Grijalva Calls for Hearing on Long-Ignored Endangered Species Issues as GOP Continues to Obstruct U.S. Anti-Poaching Efforts
Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter to Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) today urging a hearing on wildlife trafficking and endangered species issues, which the Republican majority largely ignored last year. As the letter points out, the U.S. is sending a delegation to the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Johannesburg, South Africa, this fall, and the Committee has failed to exercise its oversight jurisdiction ahead of the conference.
The most significant GOP initiative on endangered species in 2015 was a concerted effort to block the Obama administration’s proposed ivory trade restrictions, featuring Rep. Don Young’s H.R. 697 to outlaw new ivory standards. As CBS News and other outlets have reported, the Republican effort is spearheaded by the National Rifle Association in direct opposition to the recommendations of wildlife experts and conservation professionals.
Grijalva’s request for a hearing, which is available at http://1.usa.gov/1QG2xsL, centers on the need for stronger wildlife trafficking standards, an issue sure to be debated in Johannesburg. As he writes in today’s letter:
Illegal trade in fish and wildlife products is a multi-billion-dollar industry that harms the environment and disadvantages responsible harvesters of natural resources. Particularly in light of the ongoing poaching and trafficking crisis centered around African elephants and rhinoceros, the Committee has a responsibility to understand the current issues in wildlife trade, and to provide oversight of and input into the negotiating positions and proposals of the U.S. Government.
Grijalva previously requested a hearing on wildlife trafficking in a June 16, 2015, letter to Bishop. That letter, which did not receive a response, noted that the House Foreign Affairs Committee had recently held an oversight hearing on the national security risks of poaching- and trafficking-funded terrorist groups.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has long known of the need for stronger ivory trafficking standards. In announcing its proposed ivory rule, which has still not been finalized, the agency wrote last July, “An estimated 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012, an average of approximately one every 15 minutes. The carcasses of illegally killed elephants now litter some of Africa’s premiere parks. Elephants are under threat even in areas that were once thought to be safe havens.”
FWS published a Federal Register notice on Dec. 4, 2015, announcing its intention to participate in the CITES conference. You can read the notice, which provides background on the issues likely to be debated in Johannesburg, at http://1.usa.gov/1PejV5e. Public comment on that notice closed on Feb. 2.
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