"I join Chairman Pombo in supporting efforts to encourage the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to implement its own species recovery guidelines, and to monitor how they are spending recovery funds on high-priority species.

      "But I would like to point out that nowhere in the report is there a call for Congress to act with legislation.

     "Some believe that the Endangered Species Act needs to be reformed, but that diagnosis is like putting the patient under the knife when all he needs to do is eat better.

     "The GAO report indicates that among the reasons why the Service does not implement its own species recovery guidelines is that it makes more economic sense to partner with other Federal agencies and willing landowners to fund recovery efforts, a method that Interior Secretary Norton strongly advocates.

     "Undoubtedly, the Fish and Wildlife Service needs to do a better job of assessing how it spends its scarce resources. And until the Service implements a process to monitor and report to Congress and the public the extent to which it is focusing its resources on high-priority species, Congress should not rush to legislate a solution.

     "Those who prefer that Congress rewrite the law and have politicians assess what is biologically important should leave the science to the trained scientists."

     "The Endangered Species Act, in its short life span of 31 years, has been tasked with fixing what took hundreds of years to destroy. The fact that only 38% of listed species have recovery plans and critical habitat designation is not the fault of the law. The blame rests on decades of shortsighted policy and actions, and scarce funds supplied by the Congress."