Bill in Brief

The decades old Endangered Species Act is up for renewal - giving its critics a chance to loosen up the act's restrictions on development while putting environmentalists on the defensive.

The proposed changes

In the House...

Facts

Protecting endangered species was all the rage in 1973, when the Endangered Species Act was passed, designating protected areas as “critical habitats” and creating long lists of species that had to be looked after. But by the 1990s, amid criticism that the act unnecessarily hurt property values and did little to help little critters in the first place, the act became largely un-enforced. Currently, the Bush administration is taking steps to limit what qualifies as a “critical habitat”, an alarming step for some environmentalists.