Oklahoma U.S. Sens. James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin tried but couldn’t come up with enough votes to override President Biden’s vetoes that killed bills meant to roll back Endangered Species Act protections for the lesser prairie chicken and the northern long-eared bat.
It led Lankford to accuse the Biden administration of weaponizing the Endangered Species Act.
Their override votes were blocked by Democrats who sided with the President. The vote to undo lesser prairie chicken protections failed on a 47-46 vote, just short of the two-thirds needed to override the veto of Sen. Mullin’s Congressional Review Act resolution. The vote also failed 47-45 to overturn Biden’s veto of legislation reducing bat protections.
“The Endangered Species Act is being used as a tool for the feds to takeover energy, agriculture, and commerce in Oklahoma,” said Lankford.
He pointed out how energy, agriculture and construction companies have willilngly cooperated to recover the lesser prairie-chicken and preserve the habitat of the long-eared bat in order to prevent their listing under the Endangered Species Act.
“Listing either or both of these animals under the ESA would create new requirements—no longer voluntary—for Oklahomans and other surrounding states. This is the Biden Administration’s attempt to weaponize the ESA to pander to environmental activists.”
Lankford and his colleagues introduced the resolution of disapproval to strike down the Biden Administration’s listing of the lesser prairie-chicken (LPC) and the northern long-eared bat under the ESA. Lankford also pressed for reasonable interpretations of the critical habitat rule as the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) continues to try to weaponize the ESA against reasonable development and energy exploration.
