Legislative Hearing | Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee
House Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries
2025-04-08
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Source: Congress.gov
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The Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries will come to order. Good morning everyone. I want to welcome members, witnesses, and our guests in the audience to today's hearing. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess of the subcommittee at any time. Under Committee Rule 4F, any oral opening statements at hearings are limited to the chair and the ranking member. I therefore ask unanimous consent that all other members' opening statements be made part of the hearing record if they are submitted in accordance with Committee Rule 3.0. Without objection, so ordered. I also ask unanimous consent that the Congressman from Texas, Mr. Errington, and the Congressman from Colorado, Mr. Hurd, be allowed to participate in today's hearing. Without objection, so ordered. We are here today to consider four legislative measures. H.R. 839, to prohibit the implementation of a land protection plan for Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge sponsored by Representative Arrington of Texas. H.R. 1809, the Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act sponsored by Representative Quigley of Illinois. the Cormorant Relief Act of 2025, sponsored by Representative Ezell of Mississippi, and H.R. 2316, the Wetlands Conservation and Access Improvement Act, sponsored by Representative Hurd of the State of Colorado. I now recognize myself for a five-minute opening statement. Today, the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries will examine four bills that will foster good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, achieve better and more effective conservation outcomes, and provide necessary relief from predatory double-crested cormorants for aquacultural producers.
Our first bill, sponsored by Congressman Errington of Texas, would prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from implementing the Biden administration's land management plan for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in west Texas and eastern New Mexico. Under the auspices of the Biden administration's misguided 30 by 30 land grab initiative, the plan authorizes the service to acquire up to 700,000 acres. This is more than a hundred-fold increase in the size of the refuge that is currently 6,440 acres. If fully implemented, this one refuge would be larger than the entire land mass of the state of Rhode Island. Importantly, the refuge system in this country currently has over $2.6 billion in maintenance backlog needs. Yet as is typical for Washington, D.C., rather than dedicating resources to address such maintenance needs, we had an administration that sought to make it exponentially worse by grabbing even more land under the federal umbrella. Common sense says that until this backlog is resolved, the service should not increase its footprint by increasing the amount of land that it manages. The second bill under consideration is the Cormorant Relief Act offered by Congressman Ezell of Mississippi, which would require the service to reinstate the aquaculture depredation order for double crested cormorants. This order was in place from 1998 until 2016 when it was vacated by a judge in response to yet another lawsuit. Double-crusted cormorants are a water bird that are most common in the Great Lakes states and the southeast. They are opportunistic and intelligent predators, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, they often feed at aquaculture facilities where fish are easy to catch. A free lunch, so to speak. Through a variety of studies, it has been determined that predation from double-crested cormorants cost the aquaculture industry nearly $65 million annually in economic losses.
The bill would streamline the permitting process to take double-crested cormorants while putting in place certain safeguards and accountability measures to ensure the species' population health. The third bill we are considering is the Wetland Conservation and Access Improvement Act of 2025 offered by Congressman Hurd of the state of Colorado. The bill would extend the requirement in the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act, transferring the interest payments from unallocated Pittman-Robertson funds to the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, or NACA. NACA is one of the most successful conservation programs administered by the federal government. Nearly 34 million acres of wetland habitat across North America for migratory waterfowl have benefited from NACA projects. It is important to note that transferring the accrued interest does not take any money away from the Treasury. Under Pittman-Robertson, these monies would have instead been allocated to states. The state Fish and Wildlife Agencies, through the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, however, are on record supporting this approach, further confirming its viability and effectiveness. Our fourth bill is the Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act, sponsored by Congressman Quigley from Illinois. This bill would reauthorize the Great Lakes Fishery Research Program, which is administered by the U.S. Geological Survey, or USGS. This program works in concert with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to conduct research to support the binational fisheries within the Great Lakes basin. I will note that, once again, the minority has chosen to ignore their own members' legislation, choosing instead to identify a witness to oppose a Republican bill rather than a witness to testify as to the value of the Democrat bill before us. This trend is not surprising. Less than half of the legislative hearings last Congress had a witness expressing support for a minority-sponsored bill. With that, I want to take the time to thank the witnesses for being here today, and I look forward to a robust conversation.
I now recognize Ranking Member Hoyle for her opening statement. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the witnesses that came here today.
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