I
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 1490
To reauthorize and amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to improve
and protect the integrity of its programs for the conservation of threat-
ened and endangered species, to ensure balanced consideration of all
impacts of decisions implementing the Act, to provide for equitable treat-
ment of non-Federal persons and Federal agencies under the Act, to
encourage non-Federal persons to contribute voluntarily to species con-
servation, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 25, 1993
Mr. TAUZIN (for himself, Mr. FIELDS of Texas, Mr. LAUGHLIN, Mr. YOUNG
of Alaska, Mr. ORTIZ, Mr. DOOLEY, Mr. STENHOLM, Mr. PARKER, Mr.
ROWLAND, Mr. BREWSTER, Mr. MONTGOMERY, Mr. HALL of Texas, Mr.
EDWARDS of Texas, Mr. PAXON, Mrs. VUCANOVICH, Mr. SAM JOHNSON
of Texas, Mr. SARPALIUS, Mr. LEWIS of California, Mr. HAYES, Mr.
SMITH of Texas, Mr. BONILLA, Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. HANSEN, Mr.
COLLINS of Georgia, and Mr. BROOKS) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries
MAY 20, 1993
Additional sponsors: Mr. HERGER, Mr. EMERSON, Mr. CRAPO, Mr. POMBO,
Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mr. COMBEST, Mr. CONDIT, Mr. BARCIA, Mr. SMITH
of Oregon, Mr. COBLE, Mr. THOMAS of California, Mr. DORNAN, Mr.
BAKER of Louisiana, Mr. THOMAS of Wyoming, Mr. BOEHNER, Mr.
PENNY, Mr. BARTON of Texas, Mr. STUMP, and Mr. CALLAHAN
JULY 23, 1993
Additional sponsors: Mr. WILSON, Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi, Mr. MCHUGH,
Mr. MCCRERY, Mr. LIVINGSTON, Ms. LONG, Mr. SUNDQUIST, Mr.
ARMEY, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. MYERS of Indi-
ana, Mr. NUSSLE, Mr. SKEEN, Mr. MCKEON, Mr. QUILLEN, Mr. TAYLOR
of North Carolina, Mr. TEJEDA, Mr. BARLOW, Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana,
Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. BISHOP, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. BATEMAN, Mr.
BLILEY, Mr. DELAY, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. INHOFE, Mr. OXLEY, Mr. PACK-
ARD, Mr. ROBERTS, Mr. ROYCE, Mr. ALLARD, and Mr. MOORHEAD
FEBRUARY 16, 1994
Additional sponsors: Mr. HUTCHINSON, Mr. MCCANDLESS, Mr. DICKEY, Mr.
HR 1490 SC3
HEFLEY, Mr. GALLEGLY, Mr. MCINNIS, Mr. ROGERS, Mr. KYL, Mr.
CLYBURN, Mr. HOUGHTON, Mr. CANADY, Mr. SCHAEFER, Mr. BACHUS
of Alabama, Mr. CAMP, Mr. SOLOMON, Mr. CRANE, Mr. LIGHTFOOT, and
Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska
Deleted sponsor: Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana (added June 28, 1993; deleted
September 13, 1993)
A BILL
To reauthorize and amend the Endangered Species Act of
1973 to improve and protect the integrity of its programs
for the conservation of threatened and endangered spe-
cies, to ensure balanced consideration of all impacts of
decisions implementing the Act, to provide for equitable
treatment of non-Federal persons and Federal agencies
under the Act, to encourage non-Federal persons to con-
tribute voluntarily to species conservation, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Endangered Species
Act Procedural Reform Amendments of 1993’’.
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The contents of this Act are as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Amendment of Endangered Species Act of 1973.
TITLE I—ENSURING THE INTEGRITY OF THE LISTING, CRITICAL
HABITAT DESIGNATION, AND CONSULTATION PROCESSES
Sec. 101. Peer review.
Sec. 102. Consideration of State, local, and foreign government activities.
Sec. 103. Priority for species conservation.
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Sec. 104. Improving data collection and analysis.
Sec. 105. Economic impacts of designating critical habitat.
Sec. 106. Equal access to judicial review.
Sec. 107. Consultation and cooperation.
Sec. 108. Establishing consultation procedures with respect to private actions.
TITLE II—PROVIDING SIGNIFICANCE TO THE RECOVERY
PLANNING PROCESS
Sec. 201. Ensuring preparation and use of timely, comprehensive, and effective
recovery plans.
Sec. 202. Conforming amendments.
TITLE III—ENSURING THAT THE COMPLIANCE PROCEDURES
AND STANDARDS FOR NON-FEDERAL PERSONS ARE NOT MORE
BURDENSOME THAN THOSE APPLICABLE TO FEDERAL AGEN-
CIES
Sec. 301. Defining the take prohibition in accordance with the intent of Con-
gress.
Sec. 302. Clarifying the application of take prohibitions.
Sec. 303. Providing for exemptions of private actions and relieving payment re-
quirements.
Sec. 304. Authorizing issuance of general permits.
Sec. 305. Improving the conservation planning process.
Sec. 306. Compensating property owners for diminished value.
TITLE IV—PROVIDING FOR HABITAT CONSERVATION INCENTIVE
PROGRAMS
Sec. 401. Cooperative Management Agreements.
Sec. 402. Habitat reserve grants.
Sec. 403. Conforming amendments.
TITLE V—REAUTHORIZATION AND OTHER AMENDMENTS
Sec. 501. Guidance for the release of experimental populations.
Sec. 502. Recognition of captive propagation as means of recovery.
Sec. 503. Clarifying the application of prohibitions to threatened species.
Sec. 504. Citizen suits.
Sec. 505. Increased authorizations of appropriations.
SEC. 3. AMENDMENT OF ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF
1973.
Except as otherwise expressly provided, whenever in
this Act an amendment or repeal is expressed in terms
of an amendment to, or repeal of, a section or other provi-
sion, the reference shall be considered to be made to a
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section or other provision of the Endangered Species Act
of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
TITLE I—ENSURING THE INTEG-
RITY OF THE LISTING, CRITI-
CAL HABITAT DESIGNATION,
AND 
CONSULTATION 
PROC-
ESSES
SEC. 101. PEER REVIEW.
Section 4 (16 U.S.C. 1533) is amended by adding
at the end the following:
‘‘(j) PEER REVIEW REQUIREMENT.—
‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.—If an interested person
submits, in accordance with paragraph (2), a request
for peer review of an action described in paragraph
(3), the Secretary or the Secretary of Commerce
shall—
‘‘(A) appoint, from among individuals rec-
ommended 
by 
the 
National 
Academy 
of
Sciences, 3 qualified individuals who shall re-
view all scientific and commercial data on which
the action is based, and all analyses of that
data performed for the purposes of that action;
and
‘‘(B) consider and weigh carefully the re-
sults of that review.
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‘‘(2) REQUEST FOR PEER REVIEW.—Any inter-
ested person may request the Secretary to conduct
peer review under paragraph (1)(A) with respect to
an action described in paragraph (3) by submitting
the request to the Secretary in the 90-day period be-
ginning on the date of publication of notice of pro-
posed rulemaking for the action.
‘‘(3) COVERED ACTIONS.—The actions referred
to in paragraphs (1) and (2) are the following:
‘‘(A) Determination that a species is an
endangered species or threatened species under
subsection (a).
‘‘(B) Designation, or revision of designa-
tion, of critical habitat for an endangered spe-
cies or threatened species under subsection (a).
‘‘(4) PUBLICATION
WITH
FINAL
RULE.—The
Secretary shall publish with any final rule imple-
menting an activity described in paragraph (3) a
summary of the results of the peer review conducted
under this subsection with respect to that rule and
the response of the Secretary to those results.
‘‘(5) QUALIFIED PERSON DEFINED.—For pur-
poses of this section, the term ‘qualified person’
means an individual with appropriate knowledge,
training, or experience who is not employed by,
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under contract to, or receiving or using a grant or
other financial assistance from the Secretary or the
Secretary of Commerce.’’.
SEC. 102. CONSIDERATION OF STATE, LOCAL, AND FOREIGN
GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES.
Section 4(a)(1)(D) (16 U.S.C. 1533(a)(1)(D)) is
amended by inserting after ‘‘existing’’ the following: ‘‘Fed-
eral, State, and local government and international’’.
SEC. 103. PRIORITY FOR SPECIES CONSERVATION.
Section 4(f) (16 U.S.C. 1533(f)) is amended to read
as follows:
‘‘(f) PRIORITIES IN DETERMINING AND CONSIDER-
ING ENDANGERED SPECIES
AND THREATENED SPE-
CIES.—The Secretary may determine and conserve endan-
gered species and threatened species under this Act in the
following order of priority:
‘‘(1) Single species genus.
‘‘(2) Species.
‘‘(3) Subspecies.
‘‘(4) Distinct population segment.’’.
SEC. 104. IMPROVING DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS.
Section 4(b) (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)) is amended by add-
ing at the end of the subsection the following:
‘‘(9)(A) The best scientific and commercial data
available required by paragraph (1) or paragraph (2)
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shall be, to the maximum extent feasible, data that
are verified by field testing.
‘‘(B) The Secretary shall identify and publish in
the Federal Register with a proposed rule under
subsection (a)(1) or subsection (a)(3) a description
of—
‘‘(i) any gaps in the data to be considered
in making the determination under the sub-
section to which the proposed rule relates;
‘‘(ii) data that are necessary to make the
determination and that can be collected within
the period available for making the determina-
tion; and
‘‘(iii) data that are necessary to ensure the
continued viability of the determination, and
the deadline or deadlines for collecting that
data.
‘‘(C) In making a determination pursuant to
subsection (a)(1) or subsection (a)(3), the Secretary
shall collect and consider the data identified and de-
scribed pursuant to subparagraph (B)(ii).
‘‘(D) The Secretary shall identify and include
with a final rule published under subsection (a)(1)
or subsection (a)(3) a description of—
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‘‘(i) any data that have not been collected
and considered in the determination to which
the rule relates and that are necessary to en-
sure the continued scientific integrity of the de-
termination;
‘‘(ii) deadlines by which the Secretary shall
collect and consider the data in accordance with
subparagraph (E).
‘‘(E) Not later than the deadline published by
the Secretary pursuant to subparagraph (D)(ii), the
Secretary shall—
‘‘(i) collect the data;
‘‘(ii) provide an opportunity for public re-
view and comment on the data;
‘‘(iii) consider the data after that review
and comment; and
‘‘(iv) publish in the Federal Register the
results of that consideration and a description
of and schedule for any actions warranted by
the data.’’.
SEC. 105. ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF DESIGNATING CRITICAL
HABITAT.
Section 4(b) (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)), as amended by this
Act, is further amended—
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(1) by amending paragraph (2) to read as fol-
lows:
‘‘(2)(A) The Secretary shall designate critical
habitat, and make revisions thereto, under sub-
section (a)(3)—
‘‘(i) on the basis of the best scientific and
commercial data available; and
‘‘(ii) after taking into consideration the cu-
mulative economic impact and any other rel-
evant impact of designating any particular area
as critical habitat and the determination pursu-
ant to subsection (a)(1).
‘‘(B) The Secretary shall exclude any area from
designation as critical habitat if the Secretary deter-
mines that the benefits of such exclusion outweigh
the benefits of designating the area as critical habi-
tat, unless the Secretary determines, based on the
best scientific and commercial data available, that
the failure to designate the area as critical habitat
will result in the extinction of the species con-
cerned.’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(10) The proposed regulation relating to any des-
ignation pursuant to subsection (a)(3) shall describe in de-
tail the economic impacts and other relevant impacts that
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are to be considered, and the benefits that are to be
weighed, in designating an area as critical habitat. The
description and documentation shall be submitted to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Com-
merce. The Bureau shall submit written comments during
the comment period on the proposed regulation. The Sec-
retary shall respond separately and fully to each comment
in the final regulation.’’.
SEC. 106. EQUAL ACCESS TO JUDICIAL REVIEW.
Section 4(b)(3)(C) (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)(3)(C)) is
amended by striking clause (ii) and inserting the following:
‘‘(ii) Any finding described in subparagraph (A) or
subparagraph (B) shall be subject to judicial review.’’.
SEC. 107. CONSULTATION AND COOPERATION.
(a) 
CONSULTATION
STANDARDS
AND
PROCE-
DURES.—Section 7 (16 U.S.C. 1536) is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)(2) in the first sentence by
striking ‘‘or result in the destruction or adverse
modification of habitat of such species which is de-
termined by the Secretary, after consultation as ap-
propriate with affected States, to be critical,’’ and
inserting ‘‘or destroy or adversely modify any habi-
tat that is designated by the Secretary as critical
habitat of such a species in a manner that is likely
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to jeopardize the continued existence of the spe-
cies,’’;
(2) in subsection (a)(4) by striking ‘‘or result in
the destruction or adverse modification of critical
habitat proposed to be designated for such species’’
and inserting ‘‘or to destroy or adversely modify any
habitat that is proposed to be designated by the Sec-
retary as critical habitat of such a species in a man-
ner that is likely to jeopardize the continued exist-
ence of the species’’;
(3) by adding at the end of subsection (a) the
following:
‘‘(5) Consultation and conferencing under para-
graphs (2) and (4) are not required for any agency
action that is consistent with—
‘‘(A) actions provided for in a final recov-
ery plan developed under section 5; or
‘‘(B) requirements in a Cooperative Man-
agement Agreement in effect under section
6(b).
‘‘(6) An agency action shall not be a taking
prohibited by this Act or any regulation issued under
this Act if the action is consistent with—
‘‘(A) actions provided for in a final recov-
ery plan developed under section 5; or