Environment

Congress: Gray Wolf Not Endangered

Budget deal puts politics over science.

President Obama once said he would restore integrity to science, but apparently he and Congress have higher priorities: Included in the $38 billion budget deal was a rider removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list. It’s the first time Congress has ever taken such an action rather than entrusting it to a science-based federal agency. “Now, anytime anybody has an issue with an endangered species, they are going to run to Congress and try to get the same treatment the anti-wolf people have gotten,” says one environmentalist. The rider also prohibits judicial review of the delisting. Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and Mike Simpson (R-ID) pushed to remove the wolf, so that farmers in their states could hunt them.