Published October 1, 2005, in the Tracy Press.
It would not have been ill-mannered if Rep. Richard Pombo, on the floor
of the House, had pumped his fist in exaltation after Thursday’s
passage of his Endangered Species Act reform bill.
It’s been 13 years and many defeats before Pombo witnessed his
legislation approved on a 229-193 vote, with co-author Dennis Cardoza,
D-Merced, bringing over 35 fellow Democrats.
The victory illustrates that Pombo has learned the inner-workings of
Congress. He was taught the lessons by his senior government teacher at
Tracy High, Emma Burns Souza. As House Resources Committee chairman, he
sat down with friends and foes to craft substantive reforms that
survived the slings and arrows from the environmental lobbyists and the
consternation of liberal House Democrats and moderate Republicans. He
got bipartisan support in his committee and during the floor debate,
especially from the Central Valley.
Amazingly, Thursday’s impassioned debate on the House floor was about
possible reforms of the Endangered Species Act.
All sides acknowledged the act was broken after 30 years and needed to
be fixed. Political observers were surprised how far to the right the
substitute amendment authored by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, went.
In many areas, it mirrors the Pombo reforms.
That prompted Pombo to ad-lib in his closing floor speech, “We’ve
come a long way (together), George.”
Where the measures differed was in the federal government’s attitude
toward private property owners, including farmers, ranchers and
developers. The Miller amendment still mandated government controls and
courtroom confrontation. Pombo’s reforms offer prompt resolution of
differences and government incentives or fair-market value compensation
if private land was listed as recovery-plan habitat.
No doubt, private property rights is the core of these endangered
species act reforms. To rip out language that tells the federal
government to pay private property owners fair market value for the
economic effect of modifying their plans for the property would erase
Pombo’s aim. That could happen in the Senate, which seems less
inclined as a body of 100 members to redesign the Endangered Species
Act.
This is where Pombo should assert what he has learned in Congress. He
and Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., chairman of the Senate subcommittee that
probably will mark up its own bill, should seek a middle ground on the
reforms, while retaining just compensation for private property owners.
That shouldn’t be too difficult for Pombo, who also took a class at
Tracy High in meat processing. In Congress, making law is like making
sausage.
