The House Natural Resources Committee’s full markup of Rep. Bruce Westerman’s, R-AR, Endangered Species Amendments Act of 2025 is scheduled to take place Wednesday. Labeled the Extinction Act by critics, the bill seeks to undermine the Endangered Species Act, stripping away decades of protections for America’s wildlife and their habitats.
The markup is meant to determine if the bill should be recommended to the full House, and if so, in what form.
If it becomes law, the bill would:
- Narrow the “consultations” that limit harm from federal projects to threatened species – potentially to the point of making them meaningless
- Eliminate safeguards for the “take permits” that allow harm/killing of listed species
- Dramatically extend the timeline for listing decisions while imperiled species continue to slide – even to the point of overwriting court-ordered deadlines
- Change science-based decision making by elevating consideration of state and locally submitted data, regardless of its quality
- Erode public accountability in wildlife management
“This action perpetuates a troubling trend of prioritizing politics over science in the interest of extractive industry,” said Ellen Richmond, senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. “If enacted, it would strike at the heart of the Endangered Species Act by whittling down the safeguards that keep federal agencies from harming the species they are supposed to be protecting. If we remove these protections, we are flirting with extinction.”
Defenders points out that the ESA has consistently delivered measurable results, preventing nearly all listed species from extinction. Public support for protecting wildlife in the United States remains overwhelmingly high with 95 percent of voters in favor of the ESA, according to nationwide polling conducted by the group.
If enacted, the bill would represent one of the most extreme attempts to gut the ESA in its history.
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