Changes, amendments frustrate bill proponents, legislators
Story by Craig Nyhus, Lone Star Outdoor News
When a last-minute change to legislation is proposed, some who oppose the change may call it dirty pool. Others call it part of the process.
Examples of revisions to bills creating a stir and unraveling hundreds of hours of hard work appeared in Texas and nationally.
Eminent domain
Eminent domain reform was the prime focus of the Texas Wildlife Association in the past legislative session, and it almost happened.
The original bill, SB 421, after heavy negotiation with industry representatives and the lieutenant governor’s office, included basic protections of landowners facing condemnation proceedings by private companies.
“The bill provided some minimum legal standards on an initial offer, some minimum easement terms and communication between landowners and the condemnor, similar to what is required when a public entity condemns property,” said TWA Chief Executive Officer David Yeates.
The bill passed out of the Senate and went to the House and its Land and Resource Management Committee, chaired by former House Speaker Tom Craddick.
“The bill nearly made it out of the House,” Yeates said. “The committee supported the Senate version, but Craddick named himself the author of the bill, which is his right, and wrote his own version and passed it out of the committee. That version of the bill was diluted to the point there was no legitimate reform.”
Different versions of the same bill from the House and Senate head to a conference committee, which didn’t meet before the legislative session ended, effectively killing the effort.
“We plan to go forward again at the next session,” Yeates said. “We’re not going away.”
CECIL Act
In the U.S. House of Representatives, the chair of the House subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, introduced the Con- serving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies Act, called the CECIL Act, that restricts the importation of African lion trophies and other sport-hunted species that have been proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
The bill, the subject of a hear-ing on July 18, would impose a total ban on importing hunting trophies of elephants or lions taken in Tanzania, Zimbabwe or Zambia. It would also ban the import of other sport-hunted trophies of “threatened species or endangered species” unless the country where it was hunted adequately provides for the species’ conservation.
Hunting conservation groups voiced their opposition to the bill, which is supported by anti-hunting groups.
The Dallas Safari Club wrote the bill, “…solely represents an attempt to stop well-regulated, legal hunting and does not address conservation needs or concerns in Africa. It is evident that the bill’s author has not consulted with any African Wildlife Departments or rural communities, as they have and will testify that this bill would result in the reduction of conversation measures, would harm rural communities and does not address the pressing threat to Africa’s wildlife — loss of habitat.”
Three Amigos
Last-minute changes don’t always work against landowners and hunters, as evidenced by a U.S. Senate move in 2014.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 included a pro- vision that required the secretary of the Interior to reestablish certain Endangered Species Act permitting exemptions for U.S. captive-bred scimitar-horned oryx, addax and dama gazelle, referred to as the “Three Amigos.”
The three species had been exempt from 2005 until 2012, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relisted them under the Endangered Species Act.
The last-minute change to again exempt the three species was missed by the anti-hunting groups, and the legislation was signed.
