Top Texas Land Official Calls Out Biden Mussel Move

Texas' top land official called out the Biden administration's proposed federal protection for two Rio Grande mussel species as a political move aimed at forcing GOP Gov. Greg Abbott to reel in the floating barrier he deployed in the river last month to deter illegal immigration.

"Unfortunately, the Biden administration is turning the Endangered Species Act into a political tool to push an agenda rather than ensuring true conservation efforts are implemented," Texas General Land Office Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said in a Friday statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.

"This administration is proposing to roll back reasonable improvements made to this law and are simply ignoring the successful accomplishments of private preservationists, state, and local land managers by adding more federal red tape regulations."

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Lone Star State in late July over the 1,000-foot long buoy barrier, which was installed weeks earlier to prevent migrants from crossing the Rio Grande into Eagle Pass, Texas. The DOJ asked the court to force the state to remove the line of bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys because of humanitarian and environmental concerns.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on the same day of the lawsuit's filing that it was proposing listing the Salina Mucket and Mexican Fawnsfoot mussels as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and was also proposing to designate critical habitat for them. The agency cited research in its proposal that predicted the mussel populations would decline over the next 25 years and be extinct in 50 years.

Declining populations of both mussel species have been on the federal government's radar for more than 30 years, with the Fish and Wildlife Service publishing a notice in the Federal Register in 1991 that detailed its plans to review whether they should be added to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife.

An endangerment declaration for the mussels could force Abbott to remove the floating barrier and could prevent Texas from deploying more buoys in the border river, which would be considered a "critical habitat."

According to the Examiner, Buckingham sent Fish and Wildlife and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service a letter opposing the federal action.

In the letter, Buckingham said she was "extremely concerned" about the proposed endangerment declaration because of the negative and sweeping impact it would have on Texas' economy.

"These ESA listing determinations can impact thousands of acres of Texas land, water, and energy resources, and significantly affect the lives of landowners, ranchers, and farmers," Buckingham wrote.

"People have to live, and societies have to function," she said. "In the real world, people can't put food on their tables and roofs over their children's heads without engaging in everyday, practical economics.

"If there is a choice to be made between real economic need and an abstract aspiration under the ESA to cater to every imaginable species ... people are always and understandably going to look after their own families first."

In a statement earlier this month, Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington, a Republican, said the Biden administration was playing a game with the mussels to advance open border policies.

"Where was Biden's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's concerns when millions of migrants trampled the mussel's 'critical habitat' while illegally crossing the Rio Grande?" Arrington asked. "Clearly, Biden is more concerned about disrupting the habitat of the Mexican mussels than disrupting the operations of Mexican cartels who are destroying the lives of Americans and migrants alike."

• Survey: 79 Percent of Abbott's Buoys in Mexico
• Poll: Most Voters Support Texas' Floating Barriers