Today, the Trump Administration announced new rules affirming scientific integrity and common sense in future Endangered Species Act (ESA) enforcement and implementation. House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) made the following statement in response:

“These common-sense rules will aid in bringing the ESA into the 21^st century. They will ensure federal wildlife agencies get a truer picture of local environmental and economic conditions when making critical habitat designations, clarify delisting and permitting standards, and return the ESA to its original purpose. I commend the Trump administration for these balanced reforms and for reminding us all that the ESA was written to enrich wildlife habitat, not lawyers.”

Background

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (collectively “the Services”) proposed four rules to help guide the implementation of the ESA. Two of the rules are jointly published by the Services and deal with the ESA Section 7 permitting process and the criteria used for listing, reclassifying, and delisting species under ESA Section 4. Of the remaining two rules published solely by the USFWS, the first restores science-based, species-specific regulations for threatened species under ESA Section 4(d), and the second clarifies the process for excluding and precluding areas from critical habitat designations under ESA Section 4(b)(2).

These rules are complementary to reforms championed by Chairman Westerman in his legislation, H.R. 1897, the “ESA Amendments Act of 2025.” This bill would reauthorize and modernize the ESA for the first time in nearly four decades. Key reforms include incentivizing species recovery, increasing state cooperation, limiting frivolous litigation, and streamlining permitting under the ESA.