The Nation : Endangered Species Act Clears Senate

The Senate voted 93 to 2 to extend and strengthen the Endangered Species Act, the law that has become a worldwide model for protecting animals, plants and marine life. Breaking a 4-year impasse, the chamber’s vote on the bipartisan reauthorization bill cleared the way for final action this year after House and Senate negotiators work out differences between the chambers on giving the protection effort more money and power. The action came more than seven months after the House voted 399 to 16 for a very similar package to renew the program, which has technically lacked authorization since Oct. 1, 1985. Outnumbered mountain-state lawmakers, crushed by their colleagues’ election-year push for action on environmental protection, dropped efforts to soften the law’s impact on their constituents.