CHEYENNE - Several powerful Wyoming legislators are sponsoring a bill that would ask the state attorney general to watch for opportunities to sue the federal government over any failure to follow the federal Endangered Species Act or the National Environmental Policy Act.

The bill comes as Gov. Dave Freudenthal's administration continues to negotiate with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the federal agency's proposed wolf-management plan for the state.

Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, chairman of the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, is a main sponsor of the legislation. It would give the Wyoming attorney general's office as much as $250,000 to hire three more lawyers to take legal action in Wyoming, but possibly also to intervene in litigation anywhere in the country.

Other sponsors include House Speaker Roy Cohee, R-Casper; House Majority Floor Leader Colin Simpson, R-Cody; and Senate Vice President Jim Anderson, R-Glenrock.

Childers said the federal government has failed to use the National Environmental Policy Act - a federal law that requires federal agencies to assess the environmental consequences of their proposed actions - to weigh the consequences of its actions under the Endangered Species Act.

"Basically the problem is that the federal court system has tilted NEPA in a manner in which it was never intended," Childers said.

Childers is also carrying one of the "placeholder" bills in this legislative session that could allow the Wyoming Legislature to act on a proposal the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service submitted to the state, aimed at resolving a standoff over wolf management.

The federal agency has proposed that Wyoming set aside a permanent wolf management area in northwestern Wyoming. Some landowners and livestock groups say they oppose the plan.

Wyoming has sued the federal government over its rejection in 2004 of the state's proposed wolf management plan.

Rather than create a permanent wolf area, the state had proposed establishing a flexible area for wolves. It proposed allowing trophy hunting for them inside the area while classifying the animals as predators that could be shot on sight elsewhere.

The ongoing dispute between the federal government and Wyoming over wolf management has prevented the Fish and Wildlife Service from removing wolves from the protections of the Endangered Species Act in this state.

Freudenthal said last week that the federal proposal for a permanent wolf management area is unacceptable to Wyoming as it stands.