I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2829
To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require the Secretary
of the Interior to give greater weight to scientific or commercial data
that is empirical or has been field-tested or peer-reviewed, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AUGUST 2, 2001
Mr. WALDEN (for himself, Mr. HERGER, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mr. SIMPSON, Mr.
HASTINGS of Washington, Mr. NETHERCUTT, and Mr. GIBBONS) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Re-
sources
A BILL
To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require
the Secretary of the Interior to give greater weight to
scientific or commercial data that is empirical or has
been field-tested or peer-reviewed, and for other pur-
poses.
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 ‘‘Sound Science for En-
dangered Species Act Planning Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. SOUND SCIENCE.
(a) BEST
SCIENTIFIC
AND
COMMERCIAL
DATA
AVAILABLE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 3 of the Endangered
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1532) is amended—
(A) by amending the section heading to
read as follows:
‘‘SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS.’’;
(B) by striking ‘‘For the purposes of this
Act—’’ and inserting the following:
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act:’’; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(b) USE OF CERTAIN DATA.—In any case in which
the Secretary is required by this Act to use the best sci-
entific and commercial data available, the Secretary, in
evaluating comparable data, shall give greater weight to
scientific or commercial data that is empirical or has been
field-tested or peer-reviewed.’’.
(2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of
contents in the first section of the Endangered Spe-
cies Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. prec. 1531) is amended
by striking the item relating to section 3 and insert-
ing the following:
‘‘Sec. 3. Definitions and general provisions.’’.
(b) USE OF SOUND SCIENCE IN LISTING.—Section
4(b) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C.
1533(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(9) ESTABLISHMENT OF CRITERIA FOR SCI-
ENTIFIC STUDIES TO SUPPORT LISTING.—Not later
than 1 year after the date of enactment of this para-
graph, the Secretary shall promulgate regulations
that establish criteria that must be met for scientific
and commercial data to be used as the basis of a de-
termination under this section that a species is an
endangered species or a threatened species.
‘‘(10) FIELD DATA.—
‘‘(A) REQUIREMENT.—The Secretary may
not determine that a species is an endangered
species or a threatened species unless the deter-
mination is supported by data obtained by ob-
servation of the species in the field.
‘‘(B) DATA
FROM
LANDOWNERS.—The
Secretary shall—
‘‘(i) accept and acknowledge receipt of
data regarding the status of a species that
is collected by an owner of land through
observation of the species on the land; and
‘‘(ii) include the data in the rule-
making record compiled for any determina-
tion that the species is an endangered spe-
cies or a threatened species.’’.
(c) USE OF SOUND SCIENCE IN RECOVERY PLAN-
NING.—Section 4(f) of the Endangered Species Act of
1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533(f)) is amended by adding at the
end the following:
‘‘(6)(A) The Secretary shall identify and publish in
the Federal Register with the notice of a proposed regula-
tion pursuant to paragraph (5)(A)(i) a description of addi-
tional scientific and commercial data that would assist in
the preparation of a recovery plan and—
‘‘(i) invite any person to submit the data to the
Secretary; and
‘‘(ii) describe the steps that the Secretary plans
to take for acquiring additional data.
‘‘(B) Data identified and obtained under subpara-
graph (A)(i) shall be considered by the recovery team and
the Secretary in the preparation of the recovery plan in
accordance with section 5.’’.
SEC. 3. PEER REVIEW.
Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16
U.S.C. 1533) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing:
‘‘(j) INDEPENDENT SCIENTIFIC REVIEW REQUIRE-
MENTS.—