

For Immediate Release, December 8, 2016 Contact: Brett Hartl, (202) 817-8121, bhartl@biologicaldiversity.org Rep. Bishop’s True Intentions Revealed: Invalidate Endangered Species Act WASHINGTON— In a moment of candor at a House hearing Wednesday night, Rep. Bishop (R-Utah) admitted that “I would be happy to invalidate the Endangered Species Act.” His remarks came as the House Rules Committee debated yet another bill, in the 115th Congress that would weaken the Act, this time by rolling back protections for endangered salmon and the Delta smelt in the California Bay Delta. Loading the player ... Video courtesy House of Representatives. “Anyone who has carefully watched Rep. Bishop knows that he has long hated endangered species and the Endangered Species Act,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Bishop would gladly see America’s wildlife heritage disappear forever if it helped to siphon dollars to his special-interest patrons.” As chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee over the past two years, Rep. Bishop has spearheaded an unprecedented attack on endangered species. During that time congressional Republicans have introduced more than 133 separate pieces of legislation and amendments designed to eliminate protections for endangered species or the Act itself, twice as many attacks as occurred from 2011 to 2014. In total, since the Republican party retook the House of Representatives in January 2011, more than 230 attacks on endangered species have occurred. “Don’t be fooled next year when Rep. Bishop says that all he wants is to make ‘common-sense reforms’ to the Endangered Species Act,” said Hartl. “All Bishop has ever wanted to do is to get rid of the Act completely, and allow our most precious wildlife to disappear for the sake of short-term profits for his donors and political cronies.” The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.