Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act
H.R. 669
Right now, the United States does not require that living organisms being proposed for import:
• be checked for any harm they already cause in other countries;
• be screened for potential invasiveness in the United States; or
• be evaluated for the human and wildlife diseases they carry.
The need for, and importance of, such a thorough risk screening process has been noted in every major expert report on invasive species policy for more than 20 years. Yet industries, such as the pet and aquarium trades, move hundreds of millions of live organisms around the world each year with almost no related regulation. Many are identified neither accurately nor completely.
In the current system under the Lacey Act, federal managers take about four years to ban individual species from being imported or shipped between states. However, such listings usually are made only after the species has entered the country, done damage, and proven to be a significant problem. As a result of such lax policies, invasive species are the top management concern, and greatest source of skyrocketing management costs, for National Wildlife Refuges.
Read the Myths vs. the Facts of the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act.
Read more background information on the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act.
