Sponsor
Tom McClintock
Representative · R-CA
Representative · R-CA
The bill trades clearer, faster tools to supplement and protect imperiled animal populations and regulatory certainty for agencies and project planners against higher costs, broader land‑use constraints, ecological risks from captive‑breeding reliance, and potential legal and administrative burdens—especially for landowners, utilities, and governments.
Rural communities, conservation programs, and imperiled species: captive‑bred or artificially propagated individuals can be counted and used like wild individuals for recovery, supplementation, and delisting decisions, which can speed population recovery and reintroduction efforts.
State and local governments, land managers, and project proponents: the bill creates a clear authorization path to use artificial propagation to meet ESA mitigation obligations, making mitigation actions more feasible, timely, and predictable.
Project proponents, utilities, and local governments: a single consistent standard (including retroactive coverage) reduces regulatory uncertainty, enabling earlier compliance planning and potentially avoiding future retrofit costs.
Homeowners, landowners, and developers: immediate and retroactive regulatory constraints could limit land use, raise compliance costs, and reduce property values.
Utilities and energy projects: broader application and retroactive coverage can impose new mitigation and permitting obligations, increasing project costs and delaying infrastructure development.
Federal, state, and local governments (and taxpayers): applying ESA protections equally to captive‑bred populations and overseeing artificial propagation programs will raise administrative, permitting, and monitoring costs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires federal agencies to treat artificially propagated animals the same as naturally propagated animals under the ESA and to authorize artificial propagation as mitigation for animal species.
Official title: To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to provide that artificially propagated animals shall be treated the same under that Act as naturally propagated animals, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Tom McClintock · Last progress January 3, 2025
Requires the federal wildlife agencies to treat animals that are artificially propagated (for example, hatchery- or captive-bred individuals) the same as naturally propagated animals when making any listing, critical habitat, delisting, or other determinations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Also requires the Secretary to authorize use of artificial propagation as an acceptable form of mitigation for ESA-related mitigation obligations. The changes apply to all species listed before, on, or after the law’s enactment date.