Senate votes to overturn lesser prairie-chicken rule despite veto threat

The U.S. Senate has voted to overturn a rule aimed at protecting the lesser prairie-chicken in Oklahoma and other states, though the margin was well short of the number needed to overcome a veto by the president.

Wednesday's vote was 50-48 to overturn the rule, with one Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, joining Republicans, and two Democrats absent. The measure now goes to the House.

“Oklahomans have diligently worked to conserve the lesser prairie-chicken and its habitat so we could preserve the species and avoid its listing under the Endangered Species Act,” said Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford.

“Studies have shown that the lesser prairie-chicken population is impacted mostly by drought. Despite years of work, (President Joe) Biden’s Fish and Wildlife Service has ignored the drought and all the work of land owners by moving forward with their listing.”

The rule came amid a major lesser prairie-chicken population decline, lawmaker says

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s new rule, which went into effect in late March, lists the bird’s population as threatened in the northern portion of its range, which includes parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Texas, and endangered in the southern part, which includes part of Texas and New Mexico.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said the primary threat to both population segments was “the ongoing loss of large, connected blocks of grassland and shrubland habitat.”

The agency said it expected habitat loss and fragmentation of habitat to continue into the foreseeable future, reducing the bird’s resilience and putting it at risk of extinction in the northern part of the bird’s range.

Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat who is chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, argued Wednesday that the Fish and Wildlife Service had been working with states on conservation measures that would reduce disruptions to economic activity. States have warned that energy and agriculture production would be affected by the federal listings.

More: Oklahoma joins lawsuit against Biden administration over lesser prairie chicken

“Sadly, the population of the lesser prairie-chicken has declined by some 97 percent throughout the last century — 97 percent,” Carper said. “This decline is primarily due to loss of habitat and climate-related drought in the West.

“Overturning this listing may well mean the permanent loss of an iconic American species. That would harm our planet that we pass on to future generations and the communities and cultures that hold lesser prairie-chickens in high regard.”

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican who authored the resolution to overturn the rule, said private landowners had been working with state and federal governments for 20 years to protect the bird and its habitat.

“These partnerships have already resulted in conservation agreements covering roughly 15 million acres of potential habitat for species,” he said. “To list the bird now, after all the conservation effort, sends a message to stakeholders that no matter how much good work you do, the hammer will still fall, the heavy-handed government will still step in and list species under the ESA and attempt to regulate your industry out of existence, all in the name of climate.”

What happens next

The White House issued a veto threat before the vote saying the new rule affirms those voluntary conservation agreements, “which provide certainty for industry as well as safeguards for prairie-chicken populations.”

“The lesser prairie-chicken serves as an indicator for healthy grasslands and prairies, making them an important measure of the overall health of America’s grasslands, a treasured and storied landscape,” the White House message states.

“Overturning common-sense protections for the lesser prairie-chicken would undermine America’s proud wildlife conservation traditions, risk the extinction of a once-abundant American bird, and create uncertainty for landowners and industries who have been working for years to forge the durable, locally led conservation strategies that this rule supports.”

The Obama administration listed the lesser prairie-chicken as a threatened species but a federal judge in Texas ruled in 2015 that the voluntary range plan developed in Oklahoma and other states had not been properly considered.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond joined a federal lawsuit last month filed in Texas seeking to overturn the new rule.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: US Senate votes to overturn rule protecting lesser prairie-chicken