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GAO-18-346R 1 (2018-04-09)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacphn0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 April 9, 2018 The Honorable Wilbur Ross Secretary of Commerce Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund: NOAA Should Track Its Endangered Species Act and Lacey Act Collections and Request Any Required Deposits Dear Mr. Secretary: The Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (Fund) provides grants to states and territories for, among other things, conservation of threatened and endangered species on nonfederal lands, including habitat acquisition, conservation planning, and habitat restoration. Established by the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and administered by the Department of the Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Fund provided more than $56 million in such grants during fiscal year 2016.1 According to Interior documents, these grants are crucial to conserving species listed under the ESA because most listed species depend on habitats found on state and private lands. Section 11 (d) of the ESA requires the Secretary of the Treasury to make deposits into the Fund in certain circumstances. In particular, section 11 (d) requires deposits into the Fund whenever the amount of fines, penalties, or proceeds from property forfeitures collected (hereinafter referred to as collections) for ESA or Lacey Act violations exceeds $500,000.2 When this occurs, the Secretary must make a deposit into the Fund equal to the amount of the collections that exceed the $500,000 statutory threshold.3 Such deposits to the Fund are made from the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury, according to federal budget documents, and not from ESA and Lacey Act collections, which are retained by the agencies that collect them. For example, if combined collections for ESA and Lacey Act violations totaled $2 million, then the Secretary of the Treasury would be required to deposit $1.5 million into the Fund-the amount exceeding the $500,000 statutory threshold. The Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) primarily enforces the ESA and the Lacey Act for most marine species and anadromous fish and so may make collections that trigger a deposit to the Fund when the statutory threshold is 116 U.S.C. § 1535(i)(1). The ESA was enacted in 1973 to conserve threatened and endangered species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. To receive protection under the ESA, a species must first be added to one of the federal lists of threatened or endangered species, which typically happens in response to a person or group filing a petition to list a species with, or through a review initiated by, FWS or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service. 216 U.S.C. § 1540(d). The ESA also requires an annual deposit to the Fund equal to 5 percent of deposits into the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration and the Sport Fish Restoration accounts. 16 U.S.C. §1535(i)(1). The Lacey Act prohibits the trafficking of plants, fish, or wildlife taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of U.S., state, tribal, or foreign law, among other things. 316 U.S.C. § 1540(d). GAO-1 8-346R Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund Page 1

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