H.R. 1897

ESA Amendments Act of 2025

Sponsor: Bruce Westerman

26 cosponsors
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Official summary

Written by the Congressional Research Service.

ESA Amendments Act of 2025

This bill reauthorizes through FY2031 the Endangered Species Act and generally narrows protections provided under the act.

The bill directs the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to submit a National Listing Work Plan that establishes a five-year schedule and plan for addressing listing of endangered or threatened species and designation of critical habitats for such species. Under the plan, the bill gives the Services flexibility on the timing of acting on listing petitions and eliminates the requirement for the Services to act within 12 months on listing petitions.

The bill limits what land may be designated as critical habitat for an endangered or threatened species. 

It also limits protections provided to threatened species and allows a state to regulate the recovery of such species if the Services determine the state's proposed recovery strategy would conserve the species.

The bill provides statutory authority for Conservation Benefit Agreements, which allow private landowners to voluntarily enter agreements to reduce threats to candidate species in exchange for being allowed to continue their operations if the species is later listed. 

The bill also modifies the permitting process for certain other voluntary conservation agreements, including by exempting incidental take permits (e.g., permits to harm or kill a species) from environmental review requirements.

The bill also makes a variety of other changes to the act, including limiting consultation requirements, judicial review, and awards for attorneys’ fees in certain cases. 

Text of the bill

Expand all

I Optimizing conservation through resource prioritization

II Incentivizing wildlife conservation on private lands

III Providing for greater incentives to recover listed species

IV Creating greater transparency and accountability in recovering listed species

V Streamlining permitting process

Sec. 502. Successive consultations Changed · Mar 24

Where this section came from

  1. Mar 6, 2025 · Introduced in House Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources, Mar 6
  2. Mar 24, 2026 · Reported in House Marked up by House Committee on Natural Resources, Dec 17 Reported by House Committee on Natural Resources, Mar 24 Committee members' individual votes aren't in our records.
What changed in the text

… 3 unchanged passages …

(A) With respect to an ongoing Federal agency action for which the applicable Federal agency has adopted a reasonable and prudent alternative or a reasonable and prudent measure to comply with subsection (a)(2), in any subsequent consultation for the Federal agency action that occurs 10 years or more after the date on which the initial consultation for the Federal agency action was completed, the Secretary shall — (i) project the likelihood of and timeline for the recovery of the threatened species and endangered species affected by the Federal agency action; and (ii) determine whether continuing to implement the reasonable and prudent alternative or a reasonable and prudent measure will materially increase the likelihood of and reduce the time for recovery of the applicable threatened species and or endangered species. (B) If the Secretary finds determines under subparagraph (A )(ii ) that continued implementation of the modification reasonable and prudent alternative or reasonable and prudent measure will not materially improve increase the likelihood of and shorten the time to for the recovery of the applicable threatened species or endangered species , the Federal agency shall discontinue implementation of the modification reasonable and prudent alternative or reasonable and prudent measure notwithstanding subsection (a)(2).

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What is a markup?

A markup is a committee meeting where members go through a bill and vote on changes before sending it to the full chamber.

Section 7(b) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1536(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

Text this section adds to the law

(5)

(A) With respect to an ongoing agency action for which the applicable Federal agency has adopted a reasonable and prudent alternative or a reasonable and prudent measure to comply with subsection (a)(2), in any subsequent consultation for the agency action that occurs 10 years or more after the date on which the initial consultation for the agency action was completed, the Secretary shall determine whether continuing to implement the reasonable and prudent alternative or reasonable and prudent measure will materially increase the likelihood of and reduce the time for recovery of the applicable threatened species or endangered species.

(B) If the Secretary determines under subparagraph (A) that continued implementation of the reasonable and prudent alternative or reasonable and prudent measure will not materially increase the likelihood of and shorten the time for the recovery of the applicable threatened species or endangered species, the Federal agency shall discontinue implementation of the reasonable and prudent alternative or reasonable and prudent measure notwithstanding subsection (a)(2).

VI Eliminating barriers to conservation

VII Restoring congressional intent