Camas Leaders Push Rep. Perez on ESA

Camas leaders are pressing Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez to vote against a House bill that would rewrite the Endangered Species Act. (columbian.com) The push came in a letter organized by Washington Wild and the Sierra Club and signed by 23 southwest Washington officials, business owners and groups. The signers included nine local elected officials, with support from Camas, Washougal, Battle Ground, Centralia and Chehalis. (wawild.org) The bill is H.R. 1897, the ESA Amendments Act of 2025, sponsored by House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman, R-Ark. The House Rules Committee scheduled it for floor consideration on April 20, 2026, after the Natural Resources Committee advanced it in December 2025. (congress.gov) (rules.house.gov) The Endangered Species Act is the federal law that lists plants and animals at risk of extinction and requires the government to protect them and their habitat. A new Congressional Research Service summary says H.R. 1897 would reauthorize the law through fiscal 2031 and “generally narrows protections” now in place. (govtrack.us) That matters in southwest Washington because Lower Columbia River steelhead and Lower Columbia River Chinook salmon are both listed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as threatened under the act. NOAA says it uses the law to protect and conserve both runs. (fisheries.noaa.gov 1) (fisheries.noaa.gov 2) Washington Wild said the Camas-area signers warned weaker federal safeguards could make it harder to list declining species, easier to remove species with limited recovery gains, and broader for “incidental taking,” the legal term for killing or harming protected wildlife during other activities. (wawild.org) Republicans backing the bill describe it differently. The House Natural Resources Committee says the measure would add transparency, encourage conservation on private land and set a clearer baseline for measuring species recovery. (naturalresources.house.gov) Perez had not committed to a vote as of April 21, according to The Columbian. Her office has recently highlighted salmon and steelhead issues in the district, including an April 17 letter seeking federal help to curb sea lion predation in the Columbia River and an April 8 visit to the Skamania Fish Hatchery in Washougal. (columbian.com) (gluesenkampperez.house.gov 1) (gluesenkampperez.house.gov 2) The fight in Camas is over a national bill, but the argument is local: salmon, steelhead, river habitat and the rules that govern them. Perez’s vote will show whether she sides with the bill’s rewrite or with city leaders asking her to leave the Endangered Species Act intact. (columbian.com)