The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries today will hold a hearing on three anti-wildlife bills. The intent of these bills is to destroy the core purpose and historical implementation of the Endangered Species Act and to prevent regulations proposed by the Biden administration from undoing harmful Trump-era regulations. Additionally, a third bill would significantly delay needed conservation measures to protect and conserve one of our most critically endangered whale species – Rice’s whale. 

“If anti-wildlife members of Congress used the same creativity and went to the same lengths as they do attacking the Endangered Species Act and critically imperiled species to instead support and fully fund its life-saving purposes, the world would be much better, and our rapidly diminishing biodiversity more secure,” said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations for Defenders of Wildlife. “Defenders of Wildlife strongly opposes these bills, as should all members of Congress. Polling consistently shows their constituents overwhelmingly support the Endangered Species Act and so should they.”

The first of the intended bills includes Rep. Tom McClintock’s (R-CA) H.R. 520, which would force the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to abandon their carefully controlled approach to propagation as a conservation tool by forbidding any distinction between artificial propagation and natural propagation. More alarmingly, the bill’s sweeping language would also require the agencies to count populations in zoos or hatcheries when making listing and recovery determinations, even when those animals could never survive in the wild. All of this would allow for the continuing destruction of species’ natural habitats and the discounting of the important ecological roles they play in those habitats.

The second of the bills, sponsored by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), H.R. 5504 would force FWS and NOAA to withdraw ESA regulations proposed by the Biden administration that altered Trump-era regulations.  

The final of the bills is H.R. 6008, sponsored by Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), which would directly threaten the critically endangered Rice’s whale, the only great whale species resident year-round in U.S. waters. The bill would specifically establish that compliance with a Trump-era 2020 Biological Opinion — one that did not sufficiently protect the Rice’s whale — would be sufficient to comply with the ESA, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and all other federal environmental laws until the National Marine Fisheries Service publishes a new biological opinion.   The bill would also impose significant and lengthy, time-consuming procedural hurdles designed to prevent the NMFS from promulgating science-based protections for this species. 

The ESA is marking its 50th anniversary this year with a near perfect track record of preventing the extinction of the species it protects. Newly released polling from Defenders of Wildlife shows bipartisan support for the ESA outside of Congress, with 84% of Americans supporting its mission and 80% of Americans believing it should be fully funded.