Texas could receive more than $50 million annually to pay for initiatives that support at-risk fish and wildlife populations under a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress.
Known as the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA), House Resolution 3742 would provide $1.3 billion every year to states and $97.5 million to tribes. The Texas Alliance for America’s Fish and Wildlife says the funding wouldn’t require new taxes. It would be supported by existing federal revenues.
Under the Endangered Species Act, which Congress passed in 1973, species can be listed as “threatened” or “endangered.” The law doesn’t allow a person to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect a listed animal without a permit. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the goal of The Endangered Species Act is to “recover” species so they no longer need protection under the law.
Janice Bezanson, executive director of the alliance, calls RAWA “one of the most important pieces of legislation that’s come down in decades.”
Read more from Steffi Lee with KXAN here