Sponsors (18)
The bill reduces federal ESA restrictions to ease development and lower compliance burdens for landowners and local governments, but increases risks of habitat loss and species decline, cuts federal conservation support, and may create long‑term ecological and economic costs while limiting adaptive federal conservation authority.
Landowners, ranchers, and energy developers in the lesser prairie‑chicken range will face fewer federal ESA restrictions, making it easier to use, develop, or convert land for agriculture and energy projects.
State and local governments will have fewer federal regulatory obligations for projects in areas with lesser prairie‑chicken populations, reducing permitting and compliance burdens.
Rural residents, land users, and conservation organizations in the species' range will face higher risk of lesser prairie‑chicken habitat loss and population declines because ESA protections and related federal recovery actions and funding will cease.
Taxpayers, local businesses, and rural economies may incur long‑term costs from degraded ecosystem services (e.g., pollination, soil stabilization, recreation) if habitat is lost or species decline.
State governments and federal agencies will have reduced scientific and management flexibility because the law limits the Secretary's discretion to respond to new threats, which could undermine adaptive conservation policy.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Removes the lesser prairie-chicken from ESA lists and bars the Secretary from ever listing it as threatened or endangered.
Removes the lesser prairie-chicken, including all its distinct population segments, from the Endangered Species Act lists and bars the Secretary of the Interior from listing or determining the species to be threatened or endangered in the future, while leaving the Secretary’s general rulemaking duties intact except for actions about this species. No other actions, funding, or programs are created or changed by this bill.
Introduced January 21, 2025 by Tracey Mann · Last progress January 21, 2025