Sponsor
Andrew S. Biggs
Representative · R-AZ
Representative · R-AZ
This bill creates clearer, faster pathways to delist species tied to recovery-plan metrics and reduces administrative burden—benefiting landowners, governments, and regulated interests—while raising the risk of diminished protections, reduced judicial review, and potential premature delistings that could harm long-term species recovery.
Landowners, homeowners, and local governments will face less regulatory uncertainty and fewer land-use restrictions because species that meet recovery-plan goals are removed from the endangered/threatened lists more predictably.
Federal agencies and stakeholders will see faster, lower-burden administrative processing (shorter Federal Register requirements and quicker correction of listings based on new data), reducing paperwork and the time species remain listed due to potentially erroneous information.
State governments, developers, and other stakeholders will get clearer, more transparent decision-making because listings and delistings must be reviewed using explicit statutory criteria and must consider recovery-plan metrics and listing factors.
Species and the public face higher risk of reduced long-term protections and biodiversity loss if delisting is triggered solely by recovery-plan goals that are set too low or not sufficiently protective.
Nonprofits, state governments, and the public lose a layer of judicial oversight because positive delisting findings are made nonreviewable, limiting legal recourse against potentially improper delistings.
Conservation outcomes may suffer because statutory, prescriptive review criteria could limit agency discretion to weigh complex ecological evidence case-by-case, increasing the chance of inappropriate or premature delistings.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Streamlines and mandates delisting when recovery goals or evidence of recovery exist, adds strict review rules for listings made with inaccurate or fraudulent information, and prescribes specific considerations for 5‑year status reviews.
Official title: To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to provide for improved precision in the listing, delisting, and downlisting of endangered species and potentially endangered species.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025
Requires the Interior Secretary to begin delisting a species when statutory recovery-plan goals are met or when the Secretary determines a species has recovered, and it creates expedited notice-only Federal Register removals in certain delisting cases. It also forces the Secretary to promptly review and remove listings when new information shows a listing relied on inaccurate or fraudulent scientific or commercial information, makes those positive removal findings nonreviewable in court, and bars petitioners who knowingly submitted false information from acting as "interested persons" for 10 years. Adds a statutory checklist for 5-year status reviews so the Secretary must consider recovery-plan criteria (or, if none are objective and measurable, the statutory listing factors), errors in the original listing determination, and whether the species remains endangered or threatened under the statutory factors when deciding whether to change a listing status.