mr. chairman , reforming the endangered species act is long overdue .  today the house has an opportunity to enact significant improvements to esa that restore balance and protections to species as well as landowners .  one of the most effective ways to protect species habitat is through development of habitat conservation plans .  the bill improves and encourages habitat conservation plans by codifying the no-surprise policy and eliminating unnecessary red tape that required multiple consultations regarding already approved actions .  these important provisions will free up limited government and landowner resources and ultimately improve conservation of species habitat by encouraging more habitat conservation plans .  my district in california is home to a large comprehensive habitat conservation plan both in riverside and orange counties .  in fact , the west riverside county multi-species conservation plan is the largest in the nation covering over 1 million acres of land .  the plan cost tens of millions of dollars to develop , years to put into effect , and will cost upward of $ 1 billion to implement .  once fully implemented , 500 , 000 acres in western riverside county will be set aside for species habitat .  it is our responsibility to ensure when landowners and local authorities undertake an extensive planning like that back in my district , the federal government lives up to its part of the agreement .  this bill does just that and removes unnecessary regulatory burdens that do nothing to benefit the species .  i just discovered in the miller-boehlert substitute that the habitat conservation plans that we put a lot of time in to work out in southern california may be put at risk .  that would be very , very difficult for areas that spent large amounts of money to put this into effect , not to mention time .  i want to make sure that we defeat the substitute , and i thank the gentleman from california ( mr. pombo )  for working with me to include language that improves habitat conservation plans .  