| WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee member, issued the following statement today regarding the Biden Administration’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) placing a hold on the recently-finalized Migratory Bird Treaty Act Rule and opening a public comment period for it:
“In North Dakota, oil companies were unfairly prosecuted in recent years for lawful activity because of an obvious bias against the industry. The Trump Administration’s rule gave companies much-needed certainty by clarifying they would not be federally punished for birds who died by accident on their property. As the Fish and Wildlife Service accepts further comments on this commonsense rule, I urge North Dakotans to engage in the process and ask the Biden Administration to reverse its freeze.” In 2011, the Obama Administration’s U.S. Attorney in North Dakota attempted to use an “expansive interpretation” of the Migratory Bird Treaty to punish three oil companies where birds unwittingly died on their property. There was no intent to kill or harm the birds, yet the federal government tried to punitively prosecute them to the fullest extent. As Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Fishers, Water and Wildlife Senator Cramer applauded this rule last year during an EPW hearing with Fish, Wildlife and Parks Assistant Secretary Rob Wallace. |