Susan Combs , a longtime Texas pol and cows rancher who once referred to endangered coinage listings as “ incoming Scud missile , ” has quietly been put in bang of our Carry Amelia Moore Nation ’s Mungo Park and wildlife , let in impose the Endangered Species Act . allow ’s learn more !
coxcomb was nominatedmonths agoto become assistant secretary for insurance policy , management , and budget at the Interior Department . But as the Washington Postreported last week , that nominating speech has been hamstrung by bipartisan foe . Most recently , Senator Bill Nelson ( D - Florida ) vowed to continue holding it up her nomination until Zinke jettisons hiswildly unpopular offshore boring plan . alternatively , Zinke has used his authority to declare her acting helper secretarial assistant for Pisces the Fishes , wildlife and parks , a movefirst reportedby Austin American - Statesman on March 28 .
The Interior Department did not respond to multiple petition for comment on why Combs was opt for this special role . But we do have intercourse that in her new role , Combs will ( at least temporarily ) be responsible both for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ( FWS ) and the National Parks Service , giving her big businessman to unmediated policy on everything from wildlife preservation to solid ground and resourcefulness direction in parks . She ’ll also be responsible for for apply unnumberable laws and regulation , include the Endangered Species Act .
There ’s just one low problem : comb has spent her career fight Endangered Species Act listings and wildlife aegis — often , at the behest of individual landowners and industry groups . Which make her like a lot of otherTrumpadministrationofficials .
“ From all accounts , she is a determined and emphatic critic of the Endangered Species Act,”Bob Dreher , aged frailty president for conservation programs at guardian of Wildlife and former associate film director of FWS under Obama , tell Earther . “ It ’s remarkably dangerous to put her as the acting helper secretary in the DOI . ”
Combs is perhaps best known for crusade wildlife protective covering when she served as Texas country controller from 2007 to 2014 . During that time she , as Dreher put it , “ conquer control of the Endangered Species Act in a sort of big businessman romp with the Fish and Wildlife Service . ”
As former FWS deputy chief of legal philosophy enforcementGary Mowadnoted in an interview with Earther , having the body politic ’s chief financial officer sign off on endangered metal money listing is a set - up that can charitably be described as alone . An uncharitable read is that she wanted to subvert the purpose of the number to do good industry .
“ A band of folks would equate that to the fox ascertain the henhouse , ” Mowad , who ran Fish and Wildlife ’s Texas branch from 2010 to 2013 , pronounce .
According to alengthy 2015 investigationby the Austin - American Statesman , Combs was unwavering in her opposition to state wildlife receiving federal protection while controller , finding “ fault with nearly every listing proposal from Washington . ”
This included a successful dictation to keep the dune sage brush lizard off the endangered species inclination , which instead received a voluntary , oil colour and accelerator manufacture - approved preservation design that has since been deemed “ fatally flawed,”and a protracted campaign to Delaware - list the golden - cheeked warbler , which Combs bear on to finance with remnant military campaign money after getting out of state politics . ( The birdremains listedfor now . ) comb alsohelped inviolable $ 10 millionin state funding for studies purporting to inform endangered species listing , but which critic , including many body politic biologists , claimed were designed to profit industry .
“ Susan has a phonograph recording of funding research from psychiatric hospital that will give her the answer on where she want to go on an issue , ” Mowad read .
Mowad fully await comb to take a “ very bourgeois ” and “ ultra - business friendly ” approach to the Endangered Species Act in her raw role . But he ’s not totally distressed about that , severalise Earther that in his persuasion , FWS has become “ too much of an advocate ” in late twelvemonth , oftentimes using the act to require preservation military action that “ is n’t necessary . ”
“ The pendulum is swinging back toward the midriff , ” he said . “ If it just gets somewhere toward the heart , I ’m okay with that . If she takes it too far , I ’ll be concerned . ”
But while Mowad is in wait and see modal value , others are already relate .
“ It ’s a set like arrange Scott Pruitt in guardianship of the EPA , ” Dreher said .
Stephanie Kurose , peril species policy expert at the Center for Biological Diversity , put it even more plainly . “ It ’s just gon na be a catastrophe , ” she told Earther .
Kurose see the move as part of abroader Republican - run attempt to roll back endangered species shelter . New endangered mintage listing were way down in 2017 , with FWS taking heat from environmentalists for fail to list everything from thewhite - tailed prairie dogto the Pacific Walrus . Meanwhile , on Capitol Hill , House Republicans introduced legislation supposedly aimed at “ modernizing ” the endangered species act , but which critics say makes it easier to avoid protections in the name of developing .
While Zinke has appoint Combs in an act role , she has n’t yet been officially nominate to fill up it permanently . Dreher suspects that if and when she is , “ it would draw tremendous fire on the Hill . ” At the same time , he suspects any controversial move she makes as acting administrator will face a different set of challenge .
“ If she sign off on and empower prejudicial activeness and rules , mass will challenge [ them ] not just on their merit , but for have no legal authority to act , ” Dreher said . “ It ’s part of the chaos of Washington mighty now . ”
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