Grouse About This: A Funny-Looking Bird Is Holding Up Key National Defense Legislation
By: Joe Gould, September 27, 2016 (Photo Credit: Rick McEwan/Sage Grouse Initiative)
WASHINGTON — Long considered a joke to defense watchers, the odd-looking sage grouse is not longer a laughing matter, but a bona fide threat to progress of a massive multibillion-dollar defense policy bill.
The bird is at the center of a high-level showdown between House Republican leadership and the "Big Four" leaders of congressional armed services committees. That's because accommodations for the sage grouse touch energy, mining and ranching interests, and at least if some House Republicans are to be believed, such accommodations would hinder operations at some US military bases.
The House's No. 2 Republican, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, has indicated he will not let the annual National Defense Authorization Act proceed to a vote in the House unless it contains language to bar the sage grouse from the federal endangered species list until at least 2025.
http://www.defensenews.com/articles/sage-grouse-ndaa-holdup
