Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Doug LaMalfa (CA-01) released the following statement in support of the revisions to the Endangered Species Act proposed by the Department of the Interior earlier this week.
“Since its inception, the Endangered Species Act has been misinterpreted and abused as a means to stop development of public and private land. An ESA determination is an economic and conservation death sentence: where land will still sit idle, and species still won’t be recovered,” said Chairman LaMalfa. “The revisions proposed earlier this week will loosen the grip of Federal control over local landowners, freeing them to make informed decisions using their understanding of their own land and years of experience. After years of abuse, aggressively perpetuated most recently by the Biden Administration, I strongly support these changes, and commend Director Nesvik, Secretary Burgum, and President Trump.”
Background:
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) became law in 1973 to identify and protect endangered or threatened species of American plants and animals. In 2019 and 2020, President Trump issued four updates to the ESA to reign in federal overreach. However, these were revoked by the Biden Administration, who then subsequently expanded the authority of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to regulate critical habitat further. Earlier this week, on November 19, 2025, the Department of the Interior announced, in coordination with the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, a return to the 2019 and 2020 rules. A brief overview of the four revisions is available below.
- The Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) will again consider national security and economic impacts—as well as scientific and commercial data—in listings, delisting, and critical habitat determinations.
- Reinstating 2019 definitions that provide clarity and consistency to the rules of interagency cooperation in ESA regulation. This reigns in federal action and ensures that agencies must closely follow laws as they were written.
- The FWS will no longer use the Biden Administration’s “blanket rule” that applied an automatic one size fits all standard to threatened species protections. These changes align FWS practices with the National Marine Fisheries Service’s long-standing standards, allowing FWS to create protections for threatened species that are specific and necessary on a case-by-case basis.
- When determining a critical habitat, FWS will consider all economic, national security, and other relevant impacts to determine areas that must be excluded. This provides a reliable, consistent standard for landowners while protecting endangered and threatened species.
You can see the announcement from the Department of the Interior, along with more information on the changes,
here.
