By Kubiak                                             H.C.R. No. 13
       74R1600 MPC-D
                                 CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    1-1        WHEREAS, Enacted by the United States Congress in 1973, the
    1-2  Endangered Species Act was designed to promote the laudable goal of
    1-3  protecting threatened and endangered flora and fauna; and
    1-4        WHEREAS, Widely viewed at the time as the most comprehensive
    1-5  environmental protection law in history, the Endangered Species Act
    1-6  has evolved into a well-meaning but misguided federal policy; and
    1-7        WHEREAS, The Endangered Species Act is an unwieldy
    1-8  bureaucratic tool threatening the rights of property owners,
    1-9  inhibiting personal freedoms, and frustrating farmers, ranchers,
   1-10  loggers, miners, builders, and developers through the intrusion of
   1-11  the federal government; and
   1-12        WHEREAS, It is imperative that the Congress of the United
   1-13  States reopen the debate on the Endangered Species Act and apply a
   1-14  more balanced, commonsense approach to habitat and species
   1-15  protection that does not endanger the constitutional rights of
   1-16  property owners; now, therefore, be it
   1-17        RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas
   1-18  hereby urge the Congress of the United States to cease funding for
   1-19  the Endangered Species Act and enact new legislation that requires
   1-20  stricter scientific standards for the listing process and critical
   1-21  habitat designation, subjects such listings to an economic study
   1-22  that examines the impact on jobs, development potential, and
   1-23  individual landowners, and provides qualitative and quantitative
   1-24  information about listed species, as well as a total of public and
    2-1  private costs that can be attributed to protecting individual
    2-2  species; and, be it further
    2-3        RESOLVED, That new endangered species legislation include
    2-4  strong property rights protections, emphasis on incentives and
    2-5  market solutions that encourage private management of property
    2-6  rather than regulations and punitive measures, and encouragement of
    2-7  the use of captive breeding and propagation in recovery efforts;
    2-8  and, be it further
    2-9        RESOLVED, That such legislation require the listing process
   2-10  to include hearings accessible to locally affected people, provide
   2-11  those challenging a decision the same judicial review as those
   2-12  favoring a listing, and authorize reimbursement of successful
   2-13  challengers for their attorney's fees and associated costs; and, be
   2-14  it further
   2-15        RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
   2-16  copies of this resolution to the speaker of the house of
   2-17  representatives and president of the senate of the United States
   2-18  Congress, and to all members of the Texas delegation to the
   2-19  congress, with the request that it be officially entered in the
   2-20  Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United
   2-21  States.