10 



[The following was submitted:] 



Processing Time For Permits 



Three months is the average processing time for permits under the Wild Bird 

 Concervation Act, excluding permits for pet birds which take less time, as stated 

 above. 



Mr. Saxton. Are regulations currently in place for the importa- 

 tion of captively bred species? 



Mr. Jones. There are regulations in place which allow the import 

 of 45 species without need for permits that are on an approved list. 

 Those are species which meet a criterion in the law that there be 

 no wild-caught members of that species in trade, so there is no pos- 

 sibility of any hann. The regulations for import from individual 

 captive breeding facilities in other countries have been proposed. 

 Those are the regulations that we have the 4000 comments. We 

 have completed the analysis of those comments. We expect to have 

 final regulations in place early next year. 



Mr. Saxton. I understand that this process on this set of regula- 

 tions that you speak of has been ongoing for three years, is that 

 correct? 



Mr. Jones. The law took effect three years ago and we phased 

 our implementation of the law, recognizing that there were many 

 different parts. The law itself also had a phased period, because 

 during the first year imports were allowed under a quota system. 

 After that first year, automatic prohibitions took effect. And so we 

 have published, Mr. Chairman, regulations first and foremost — our 

 first priority was the permits process so that people had a way to 

 get permits. The second priority was establishing the lists of spe- 

 cies that don't need any permits at all, and we have adopted the 

 regulations that establish the list of 45 captive-bred species. We 

 have two more pieces to that that need to be finalized on the cap- 

 tive breeding facilities to which you just referred, as well as the 

 management programs in other countries. And those are the ones 

 that we expect to have finalized at the end of this year for the for- 

 eign breeding programs and early next year for the captive breed- 

 ing facilities. 



Mr. Saxton. Let me turn to a slightly different subject, and then 

 we will ask Mr. Studds if he has any questions. I understand that 

 the Administration has never requested funding for the Wild Bird 

 Conservation Act. I assume that is true, therefore the question is 

 how in the world are you funded? 



Mr. Jones. Mr. Chairman, I am not sure of the source of your 

 information, but in fiscal year 1994 the Administration did request 

 funding to implement the Wild Bird Act. We requested that in two 

 ways. We requested $500,000 for permits programs, but we also re- 

 quested additional funding. A total of 800,000 additional dollars 

 were requested also to implement general permits programs in fis- 

 cal year 1994. And there was an additional request of $500,000 for 

 law enforcement for wild birds and related activities. We received 

 an appropriation, but we did not receive the entire amount which 

 we requested, which included funding for a variety of our permits 

 programs. 



So, Mr. Chairman, we have some funding for the Wild Bird Act, 

 but we do not have all of the funding which was requested in fiscal 



