Lawmakers clash over ESA overhaul, Gulf of America bills

A Natural Resources subcommittee also debated legislation to remove protections for the gray wolf.

March 26, 2025

House Natural Resources Republicans piled on the gray wolf's Endangered Species Act listing during a Tuesday hearing to justify legislation to overhaul the law.

Democrats expressed opposition for H.R. 1897, the "ESA Amendments Act of 2025," but focused their ire on a separate bill to codify President Donald Trump's Gulf of America executive order.

Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) hopes this Congress breaks the impasse on amending the 50-year-old landmark environmental law.

“After more than 50 years, it’s time that we make changes to bring the ESA into the 21st century,” Westerman said. "It is time that Congress brings the ESA back to its original intent, which is recovering listed species to the point where they no longer need to be protected."

Westerman’s bill contains changes Republicans have sought for decades to prevent environmental groups from using the law to block mining and drilling.

The bill would require an economic impact analysis to accompany any decision to list a species as endangered or threatened. ESA advocates warn the requirement could turn public opinion away from protecting imperiled animals and plants.

The bill would also raise the bar for “jeopardy” in consultations between state wildlife agencies and the federal government. Advocates warn the language would gut the current consultation process that prohibits the federal government from taking actions that would harm endangered species.

Democrats have been a firewall against any changes to the ESA. They pushed back Tuesday on Westerman's assertion that the ESA was fundamentally broken.

“It is deeply disingenuous, to the point of gaslighting, to suggest that anything about this legislation before us which absolutely weakens the Endangered Species Act … is about making the law work better or bringing it back to its original intent,” said ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).

“The original intent was to save species from extinction," said Huffman. "This bill is part of an extinction agenda."

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) — who has sponsored the “Recovering America’s Wildlife Act," which would increase support for wildlife agencies rebuilding critical habitat, also slammed Westerman’s bill.

“These proposed changes will only lead to species extinction, not species recovery,” Dingell said. “We need to work together to pass lasting investments in species recovery. … Sadly, we only keep hearing partisan attacks on our most successful environmental protection laws."

‘Bootlicking sycophancy’

In both his opening statement and his round of questioning, Huffman quickly pivoted from the ESA to Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's proposal, H.R. 276, to codify the Gulf of America name in statute.

"I’ve never seen anything even remotely like the gentlelady from Georgia’s bill to curry favor with Donald Trump by affirming his swaggering ignorance in trying to rename the Gulf of Mexico,” Huffman said. “This is just remarkable … bootlicking sycophancy of the highest order.

“All of you know that this is not a serious bill, surely many of you are embarrassed by this naked tribute to the cult leader, but here we are,” Huffman said.

Some Republicans on the panel didn’t take kindly to repeated Democratic prodding of Greene’s bill. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) seemed to suggest that Republicans may seek to rename Washington to the "District of America" if the jokes continued.

"I would caution my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to refrain from making fun of the Gulf of America, because next up it may end up being the District of America we’re working on,” Boebert said. “Keep the jokes at bay and maybe we’ll just stick with the Gulf of America for now."

Gray wolf bill

Republicans on the panel were united behind Boebert’s bill, H.R. 845, the “Pet and Livestock Protection Act of 2025," which would delist the gray wolf and block the courts from weighing on the issue.

Trump in his first term moved to delist the predator, but the courts found it had not recovered. Republicans disagree and say the wolves are harming pets and livestock.

Indeed, several lawmakers at the hearing displayed photographs of deceased animals they said were preyed upon by the wolves.

“They are fully recovered, take the win,” Boebert said. “Unfortunately, frivolous litigation got us back to where we are again, the science is crystal clear on this issue, gray wolves should no longer be on the endangered species list.”

Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee ranking member Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) said the move to delist the wolf would step on agency autonomy and its mandate to follow the science.

“Agencies must base listing and delisting and all other decisions under the Endangered Species Act on the best available science and commercial data and on tribal consultation, not on political wins,” Hoyle said.


By:  Garrett Downs
Source: E&E Daily