Sponsors (18)
Introduced May 21, 2025 by Andrew R. Garbarino · Last progress May 21, 2025
The bill centralizes and funds a national network to speed placement and improve care for seized endangered wildlife—reducing burdens on ports and improving animal welfare—but shifts administrative and financial burdens to partner organizations, creates risks of capacity or procedural bottlenecks, and adds federal spending.
Law enforcement (federal, state, and local) and port authorities will have a single, vetted national contact and committee (the Wildlife Confiscations Network) to place and arrange care for seized wildlife, reducing on‑site care burdens, administrative friction, and speeding transfers.
Seized endangered and CITES-listed animals are more likely to receive appropriate quarantine, rehabilitation, and long-term care because qualified zoos, sanctuaries, aquaria, NGOs, and universities can be formally recognized and the Network establishes standardized credentialing and response protocols.
Creating a centralized Network and clarifying that the Secretary (DOI through USFWS) has responsibility improves accountability and coordination for placement decisions and oversight of seized endangered/CITES species.
Zoos, sanctuaries, aquaria, NGOs, and universities will face new application, documentation, credentialing, and compliance requirements to join the Network, imposing administrative costs that may disproportionately burden smaller organizations and limit participation.
Relying on external facilities and centralized placement processes could create chain-of-custody or evidence-handling gaps and/or decision delays that risk undermining prosecutions and law-enforcement operations.
Expansion of the Network may leave uneven regional capacity—high-volume ports or surge periods could still strain local infrastructure—and Committee review processes could create placement bottlenecks causing delays.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a voluntary Wildlife Confiscations Network to place and care for seized CITES/ESA-listed animals and authorizes $5M/year for 2026–2030.
Establishes a voluntary, cooperative Wildlife Confiscations Network to help Federal wildlife law enforcement place and care for seized CITES- or ESA-listed animals by maintaining a vetted list of qualified care facilities, developing response protocols, and operating a review Committee. The Secretary of the Interior must set up the Network with an accredited zoological partner, allow applications from zoos, aquaria, sanctuaries, rescues, universities, and NGOs, and the law authorizes $5 million per year for fiscal years 2026–2030 to carry out the program.