ESA Oversight Hearing & Corrected FSA Committee Election Ballots

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

At a recent oversight hearing the House Natural Resources Committee examined the impacts of the Endangered Species Act's closed-door mega-settlements on listing and critical habitat decisions, and the need to reform this law to ensure that its focus is on recovering species while protecting jobs and local economies. Committee Chairman Doc Hastings comments on the need for transparency with the ESA and sites a prime example in Washington state.

HASTINGS: We clearly think that litigation has to be done in more transparency. When we talk about the bladderpod for example in Franklin County, that was done with no transparency whatsoever, and local farmers after finding out about the potential listing and the impact it would have on private property said "let us work on that", and they discovered that the bladderpod in Franklin County has similar DNA to bladderpods in four or five other counties and three different states. If you had transparency in the first place, this probably could have been avoided.

I might add, no final decision has been made on the bladderpod even though this evidence is readily available.

Hastings also stated that the Committee intends to advance common sense legislation to improve the ESA for the benefit of both species and people.

A reminder to producers that due to a printing error the FSA county committee election ballots have been recreated and are being re-sent to producers for the 2013 election. The new ballots will be marked "CORRECTED" in several areas. Eligible voters should receive their new ballots in the mail by December 20. Ballots must be returned or postmarked to county offices by January 17, 2014.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.