SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A group of congressmen proposed bipartisan legislation yesterday to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, a measure that environmental groups say would gut the landmark 1973 law.

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee, scheduled a hearing tomorrow on the measure. He and Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., argued that it is time to return to the original goal of the act: increasing the populations of threatened or endangered species to the point that they can be removed from the list.

The bill was unveiled at a Sacramento news conference at the same time it was introduced in Washington, D.C. The congressmen said the announcement far from the nation's capital was intended to show that the proposed law would return more control to state and local governments.

In all, six Democrats and eight Republicans — including Cathy McMorris, R-Wash. — signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. Seven of the eight Republicans and two of the six Democrats are members of Pombo's committee. "We made the effort to actually sit down and get a bipartisan bill," Pombo said.

Pombo said some environmental groups — which he would not name — joined with recreational users, property-rights advocates, industry groups and Interior Department officials in crafting the bill.

The new bill would require the government to compensate property owners at fair market value for any loss that results from protecting endangered species. If compensation isn't paid, the government could not enforce the act.

Environmental groups said that provision would be so expensive it would make the law useless. It also would encourage developers to plan projects for environmentally sensitive areas, they said, in hopes of getting compensation from the government.

The bill also would eliminate the act's requirement that critical habitat be designated for endangered species, substituting a provision that enough habitat be set aside to help each species recover. Pombo said that could be more or less land than under the current act.

Critics said the proposed legislation would politicize the act's enforcement with a provision requiring the Interior secretary to define what constitutes the "best available scientific information." They said other provisions would make it difficult to block damaging projects or add to the list of 1,370 plants and animals considered threatened or in danger of extinction.