Colorado Wildlife Federation On April 7, 2022 the US Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee passed the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act bill on a bi-partisan 15-5 vote. This strong vote is a tremendous step forward. Next steps are the Senate Floor and House floor!
Earlier: On January 19, 2022, the US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on Recovering America’s Wildlife Act bill (HR2773) and marked it up in a bi-partisan 29-15 vote. Co-sponsor Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) noted that she intends to continue working to find funds to offset the cost. Colorado’s Reps. Neguse and DeGette are co-sponsors of the bill and voted in favor. So far, there are 151 co-sponsors in the House. Next stop, presumably, is the House Floor. The Senate version, on which Sen. Hickenlooper is a co-sponsor, provides for an offset.
The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would bring approximately $26 million annually to Colorado for the implementation of the State Wildlife Action Plan, which outlines priorities for protecting threatened species and restoring critical habitat throughout the state. Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages the state’s roughly 960 wildlife species.
CWF has long supported this essential wildlife conservation funding bill to safeguard species of greatest conservation need in our state.