Kennedy urges Senate to block owl-killing rule: “Who appointed them God?”

Watch Kennedy's comments here.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) called on the Senate to block a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to kill roughly 453,000 North American Barred Owls.

Key excerpts of the speech are below:

"I know the bureaucrats at the Department of the Interior. I realize this: They're smarter and more virtuous than you and I are. I get that. But who appointed them God? Who appointed them God?

"Barred owls are expanding their habitat because the forests in the east have been cut down. That's called adaptive range expansion. And do you know what? Whether you believe in God or nature or whatever, that happens every single day in our ecosystem. It's a naturally occurring ecological phenomenon. It's a core behavioral characteristic of animals.

"The barred owls are not hurting anybody. They're just doing what nature teaches them to do. We're going to change nature? We're going to control our environment to this extent? We're going to pass DEI for owls? We're going to pass quotas for owls? Spotted owls, good. Barred owls, bad. But the barred owls won't lose their constitutional rights. They will kill them. They will kill 453,000 of them, dead as Jimmy Hoffa. Give me a break."

. . .

"Ecosystems are like markets. They regulate themselves. Trying to change nature is like trying to have a federal government direct a free enterprise system. It won't work. It never has. And it never will. . . . But this, to me, is just bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid. I have rocks in my driveway that are smarter than this. . . . Life is hard. But it's a lot harder when you're stupid. Don't do it. Pass my resolution, and let's stop this."

Background

• In 2024, President Biden's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a plan to kill roughly 453,000 North American Barred Owls. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Record of Decision for the Final Barred Owl Management Strategy outlines a plan to "swiftly reduce" the barred owl population to protect the northern spotted owl. The strategy takes a stepped approach, starting with smaller kill levels in the first three years before increasing.

• This plan is a misguided attempt to protect the spotted owl, a nearly identical owl species that has been in long-term population decline. The government should not be picking winners and losers in business or in the environment.

• The plan laid out by this rule is certainly not efficient, and the proposed plan will not even work. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist said of the plan, "to try to control barred owls across a large region would be incredibly expensive, and you'd have to keep doing it forever because if you ever stopped, they would begin to come back into these areas."

• Estimates show this rule will cost the taxpayer around $1.35 billion. A $4.5 million contract was awarded in 2024 to kill about 1,500 barred owls over four years. The cost was $3,000 per owl killed, including babies.

• Kennedy introduced a joint resolution of disapproval under Congressional Review Act procedures to repeal the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's plan and save the Barred Owls.

Full text of the resolution is available here.

Watch Kennedy's speech here.