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Interior Seeks to End Citizens' ESA Listing Suits The Administration's budget request for the next fiscal year's U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service proposes to defund the provision of the Endangered Species Act that permits citizen lawsuits to compel the government to add species to the Endangered Species list. Critics of the provision have long noted that it prevents the agency from prioritizing listing decisions and optimizing its resources, while draining its budget and staff time in endless litigation. The greens, on the other hand, express the view that court orders are the only way to spur on an agency which is "worried about the controversy of listing" species. The greens are less forthcoming about another aspect of the provision: it has been a cash cow for them, because it allows a prevailing plaintiff to recover legal fees, often at inflated hourly billing rates. Since anyone can dispute an agency's prioritizations, winning such suits is not difficult. In any event, defending the status quo has become a rallying cry for green-leaning legislators, who are promising a filibuster if the measure makes it to the floor. Republican Rep. George Radanovich (California) clarifies: "This provision does not prevent anyone from suing over critical habitat designations for endangered species. What it does do is prevent the extreme environmentalists from suing the Fish and Wildlife Service into a box and bleeding its resources dry." Return to Public Policy Archive Forest Resources Association
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