Congress Fails To Address Crisis In American Bird Populations
Yesterday, the Department of the Interior released a State of the Birds Report, which concludes that although some major bird species, such as bald eagles and turkeys, have made significant recoveries over the last few decades, one third of bird species in the United States are endangered or threatened due to habitat loss, with birds native to grasslands and coastal areas suffering particularly heavy losses.
Actually, this report doesn’t break new ground so much as summarize what previous, smaller reports have already stated. There has been ample warning that American birds are in trouble. So, what legislation has the U.S. Congress drafted to deal with the problem?
Nothing. There isn’t a single bill in Congress right now to deal with the crisis in American bird populations. In fact, there’s only one piece of legislation in Congress right now that deals with birds at all: It’s S. 489, a bill by Senator David Vitter, which would amend the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to increase the hunting of birds, making the problem even worse.
