On Wednesday, Kansas First District Congressman Tim Huelskamp announced his sponsorship of H.R. 659, a bill to reverse the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken under the Endangered Species Act. The bill also would not allow the Department of Interior to re-list the bird until range-wide conservation plans were given a chance to work.
Congressman Huelskamp, a leader in the fight to oppose and delay the listing and an original co-sponsor of the bill since its arrival in Congress, issued the following statement:
“Western Kansas specifically has seen and continues to see major disruptions as a result of the listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken. Farmers, ranchers, oil and gas producers, and our electric cooperatives are facing tremendous uncertainty and costs because of this federal mandate. Instead of common sense and voluntary conservation efforts, federal bureaucrats are instituting these draconian, job-killing over-regulations. Together with my congressional colleagues in the region, along with dozens of Kansas counties, I will continue to defend rural Kansans and our way of life.”
