Dear Colleagues – U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee Chair Westerman (R-AR) has introduced a bill that will gut the ESA - H.R. 9533, the “Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2024.”  The bill may be considered in the next House Natural Resources Committee markup on September 19, 2024. We do not know for sure if it will be in the markup, but we may not have much lead time so wanted to get going on the sign on letter. This is the ESA opponents’ long-promised effort to “reauthorize” the ESA but, in reality, every provision in the bill would undermine the law – so it is crucial to have a strong sign-on letter.

The deadline to sign is COB next Tuesday 9/17/2024.  The letter is linked in this form and please also sign on using the form. For ease in reviewing, the letter is also attached as a word document.

Here are some of the specific ways in which the bill would undermine the ESA:

• dramatically extend the timeline for listing decisions while imperiled species continue to slide, meanwhile fast-tracking delistings;
• block automatic take protection for threatened terrestrial and freshwater species;
• significantly increase allowable taking of threatened species, which then may decline toward endangered status;
• diminish federal agencies’ traditional role in listed species management;
• narrow the scope of critical habitat designations in multiple harmful ways;
• increase the role of the ESA’s ineffective “Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances” program and decrease its available protections;
• obliterate science-based decision making by converting all state-submitted data into “best available science,” regardless of its quality;
• erode public accountability in wildlife management; and
• preclude full mitigation for certain agency actions that harm species.

Cheers, Mary Beth

Mary Beth Beetham (She/Her)
Director of Legislative Affairs

DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE

1130 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036

TEL: 202.772.0231 FAX: 202.682.1331 

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