GAO Study Shows Ongoing Pattern of Bushevick Subversion of Endangered Species Act

Washington, DC – The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report May 21st finding that political interference in scientific decisions concerning the nation’s endangered species were not limited to former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald. MacDonald resigned in disgrace one year ago after an investigation by the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General found she had used her position to aggressively squelch protection of endangered species and ecosystems. Today’s report found that other Bush administration officials have similarly interfered in crucial decisions concerning endangered species and their habitat.”The Government Accountability Office has today confirmed something we’ve suspected all along,” said Bill Snape, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “MacDonald was not just a bad apple, but rather was part of a coordinated Bush administration effort to undermine protection for endangered species – including the recently listed polar bear, which is still subject to harmful oil and gas activities.

“The report cited denial of protection for the Miami blue butterfly as an example of a decision where another Interior official “besides Ms. MacDonald” was involved, noting that “Service officials at all levels supported a recommendation for listing the species” on an emergency basis, but that this other official derailed this listing by instead making the species a candidate for protection. “Today’s report confirms that denying, delaying, and limiting endangered species protection against the advice of respected scientists is the modus operandi of the Bush Department of the Interior,” said Snape.

In addition to finding that other officials in Interior had tampered with endangered species decisions, the report found that Ms. MacDonald had issued a number of informal policies that limited protection for endangered species, including those that called for ignoring scientific recovery plans when designating critical habitat and limiting critical habitat to the narrow area in which species were found. The report concluded that six of the eight species that have been delisted under the Bush administration had not met goals established in their recovery plan and that the Fish and Wildlife Service was not responding to petitions to protect new species in a timely manner.

“The next administration is going to have its work cut out for it to correct the problems with endangered species management created by this administration,” added Snape. Indeed, the next administration will be left with a legacy of 281 candidate species that are recognized as warranting protection, including the Miami blue butterfly, but have yet to be provided protection; a slew of critical habitat designations that the courts have found to be not scientifically based and therefore illegal; and an embattled U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in which agency scientists feel like they can’t do their jobs. Correcting these problems will require increased funding for the endangered species program, a schedule for providing protection to all candidate species in the next five years, revision of all critical habitat designations in which MacDonald’s bad policies limited protections, and policies that protect the agency’s scientists from political interference.