State, Tribal, and Local Species Transparency and Recovery Act

State, Tribal, and Local Species Transparency and Recovery Act

This bill amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require the Department of the Interior or the Department of Commerce, as appropriate, to provide to affected states all data that is used as the basis of a determination on whether a species is an endangered species or a threatened species before making a determination.

The appropriate Department must use data submitted by a state, tribal, or county government in making such a determination.

[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 736 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 736

 To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require disclosure to 
States of the basis of determinations under such Act, to ensure use of 
   information provided by State, tribal, and county governments in 
         decisionmaking under such Act, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 12, 2015

   Mr. Enzi (for himself, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Thune, and Mr. Barrasso) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
               Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require disclosure to 
States of the basis of determinations under such Act, to ensure use of 
   information provided by State, tribal, and county governments in 
         decisionmaking under such Act, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``State, Tribal, and Local Species 
Transparency and Recovery Act''.

SEC. 2. REQUIRING DECISIONAL TRANSPARENCY WITH AFFECTED STATES.

    Section 6(a) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 
1535(a)) is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``(1)'' before the first sentence; and
            (2) by striking ``Such cooperation shall include'' and 
        inserting the following:
    ``(2) Such cooperation shall include--
            ``(A) before making a determination under section 4(a), 
        providing to States affected by such determination all data 
        that is the basis of the determination; and
            ``(B)''.

SEC. 3. ENSURING USE OF STATE, TRIBAL, AND LOCAL INFORMATION.

    (a) In General.--Section 3 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 
(16 U.S.C. 1532) is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through (21) as 
        paragraphs (3) through (22), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:
    ``(2) The term `best scientific and commercial data available' 
includes all such data submitted by a State, tribal, or county 
government.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 7(n) of such Act (16 U.S.C. 
1536(n)) is amended by striking ``section 3(13)'' and inserting 
``section 3(14)''.
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