Sponsors (13)
Delists the Mexican wolf from the ESA, invalidates two USFWS rules, and bars consideration of Mexican population status in certain future federal decisions.
The bill shifts control and regulatory burden away from federal protections—giving ranchers and local authorities more flexibility and lower compliance costs—while raising the risk of population declines for Mexican wolves, weakening range-wide scientific oversight, and creating potential litigation or public-cost liabilities.
Ranchers, farmers, and other landowners in the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area will face fewer federal restrictions and likely lower predator-related losses, reducing compliance burdens and easing livestock compensation disputes.
State and local authorities and rural communities gain broader management options and control over wolf depredation responses, which could reduce local conflicts and speed on-the-ground decisions.
Removing federal protections increases risk to long-term Mexican wolf recovery — cross-border coordination failures and expanded lethal control by states or private actors could reduce population size and genetic diversity, imperiling persistence.
Prohibiting consideration of the Mexican population when evaluating future listings could produce scientifically incomplete federal decisions and weaken coherent, range-wide conservation planning.
Taxpayers and local governments could incur new costs from litigation over delisting or from states stepping in with their own conservation programs to replace lost federal actions.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To remove the Mexican wolf from the lists of threatened species and endangered species published pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 30, 2025 by Paul Gosar · Last progress June 30, 2025
Removes the Mexican wolf from the Endangered Species Act lists immediately and invalidates two Fish and Wildlife Service final rules addressing the Mexican wolf. It also forbids the Interior Secretary (through the USFWS Director) from considering the status of Mexican wolves in Mexico when designating critical habitat or making future listing, delisting, or status-change decisions if the species is relisted after enactment. The measure cites recent population increases and livestock conflicts as justification and changes how international population information may be used in future federal ESA actions for this taxon.