Menéndez Wants Answers on Elephant Trophy Ban

Amid the administration’s flip-flop, Senator Bob Menéndez (D-NJ) last week sent a letter signed by 21 Senate colleagues to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke calling on the Department to officially halt any reversal of the ban on importing sport-hunted African elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a decision to lift the ban on elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia, but after outrage spread on social media over the apparent decision, Donald Trump tweeted that the decision was on hold. The Senators write that while "the President has tweeted that the decision is currently on hold, but USFWS had already published its decision in the Federal Register, and no subsequent updates have been made ... tweets alone do not constitute substantive federal policy without commensurate agency action and do not negate the need to file appropriate public notice." The letter demands answers to nine specific questions about the decision and calls on the Interior Department to clarify the issue. Learn more here.