EMPOWERS Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 5594 To provide for greater county and State consultation with regard to petitions under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 13, 2020 Mr. SMITH of Missouri (for himself, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. CRAWFORD, Mr. NEWHOUSE, and Ms. CHENEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources A BILL To provide for greater county and State consultation with regard to petitions under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ensuring Meaningful 4 Petition Outreach While Enhancing Rights of States Act 5 of 2020’’ or the ‘‘EMPOWERS Act of 2020’’. 6 SEC. 2. GREATER COUNTY AND STATE INVOLVEMENT. 7 (a) COUNTY AND STATE CONSULTATION ON PETI- 8 TIONS.—Section 4(b)(3) of the Endangered Species Act 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5594.IH H5594 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5594 IH of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)(3)) is amended by adding at 1 the end the following: 2 ‘‘(E) LISTING PETITION REVIEW REQUIRE- 3 MENTS.— 4 ‘‘(i) Not later than 30 days before 5 submitting to the Secretary a petition to 6 list, delist, or reclassify a species that oc- 7 curs in the United States, or to revise a 8 designation of critical habitat of such a 9 species, the petitioner shall provide to the 10 chief executive of each county and State in 11 which the species is located a notice of in- 12 tent to submit such petition. 13 ‘‘(ii) The Secretary shall, upon finding 14 that a petitioned action to list a species as 15 a threatened species or endangered species 16 may be warranted, solicit from the chief 17 executive of each county and State in 18 which the species is located— 19 ‘‘(I) information regarding 20 threats to the species and efforts by 21 the county or State, respectively, to 22 protect the species; 23 ‘‘(II) information about the an- 24 ticipated effects of the action re- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5594.IH H5594 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5594 IH quested in the petition in that county 1 or State, respectively; and 2 ‘‘(III) the advice of the chief ex- 3 ecutive on whether the status of the 4 species merits the action requested in 5 the petition, including information in 6 support of such advice. 7 ‘‘(iii) The Secretary may verify by 8 field testing the information presented in a 9 petition asserting that a species is a 10 threatened species or endangered species. 11 ‘‘(iv) If a chief executive advises under 12 clause (ii)(III) that the petitioned-for ac- 13 tion is not warranted, the Secretary may 14 not proceed with the action unless the Sec- 15 retary demonstrates that information sub- 16 mitted in support of such advice by the 17 chief executive is incorrect and that the ac- 18 tion is warranted.’’. 19 (b) REGULATIONS TO IMPLEMENT DETERMINA- 20 TIONS.—Section 4(b)(5) of the Endangered Species Act 21 of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)(5)) is amended to read as 22 follows: 23 ‘‘(5) NOTICE REQUIRED.—With respect to any 24 regulation proposed by the Secretary to implement a 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5594.IH H5594 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5594 IH determination referred to in subsection (a)(1), the 1 Secretary shall— 2 ‘‘(A) not less than 90 days before the ef- 3 fective date of the regulation— 4 ‘‘(i) publish a general notice and the 5 complete text of the proposed regulation in 6 the Federal Register; 7 ‘‘(ii) provide notice of the proposed 8 regulation (including the complete text of 9 the regulation) to the chief executive of 10 county and State in which the species is lo- 11 cated, and invite such chief executive to 12 submit to the Secretary a determination as 13 to whether the proposed regulation is war- 14 ranted; and 15 ‘‘(iii) if the chief executive notifies the 16 Secretary that the proposed regulation is 17 not warranted, provide to the chief execu- 18 tive a record of decision for such deter- 19 mination, including information made 20 available to the Secretary that did not sup- 21 port the determination and in writing the 22 reasons for the determination; 23 ‘‘(B) in cooperation with the Secretary of 24 State, provide notice of the proposed regulation 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5594.IH H5594 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 5594 IH to each foreign nation in which the species is lo- 1 cated or whose citizens harvest the species on 2 the high seas, and invite the comment of such 3 nation thereon; 4 ‘‘(C) provide notice of the proposed regula- 5 tion to— 6 ‘‘(i) each person who requests such 7 notice; 8 ‘‘(ii) each person who has submitted 9 additional data on the proposed regulation; 10 ‘‘(iii) each county, State, and local 11 government within the jurisdiction of 12 which the species is located or that is likely 13 to experience any effects of any measures 14 to protect the species under this Act; and 15 ‘‘(iv) such professional scientific orga- 16 nizations as the Secretary considers appro- 17 priate; 18 ‘‘(D) publish a summary of the proposed 19 regulation on the internet; and 20 ‘‘(E) promptly hold one public hearing on 21 the proposed regulation if any person files a re- 22 quest for such a hearing within 45 days after 23 the date of publication of general notice.’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5594.IH H5594 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 5594 IH (c) CONSULTATION ON FINAL DETERMINATION.— 1 Section 4(i) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 2 U.S.C. 1533(i)) is amended to read as follows: 3 ‘‘(i) WRITTEN JUSTIFICATION.—If the Secretary 4 adopts a final regulation in conflict with advise submitted 5 by the chief executive of a county or State or fails to adopt 6 a regulation pursuant to an action petitioned for by such 7 a chief executive under subsection (b)(3), the Secretary 8 shall submit to the chief executive— 9 ‘‘(1) a separate written justification explaining 10 the failure of the Secretary to adopt regulations con- 11 sistent with the advise or petition of the chief execu- 12 tive; 13 ‘‘(2) any determination referred to in subsection 14 (a)(1) relating to the regulation; and 15 ‘‘(3) all comments received by the Secretary 16 that disagreed with all or part of the regulation.’’. 17 (d) FACA.—Section 4(b) of the Endangered Species 18 Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)) is amended by adding 19 at the end the following: 20 ‘‘(9) FACA.—Consultation with counties and 21 States regarding petitions and proposed regulations 22 under this subsection shall not be subject to the 23 Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.).’’. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:19 Jan 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5594.IH H5594 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS