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119-hr1897119th CongressWALLET
ESA Amendments Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Representative Westerman, Bruce [R-AR-4]
In Committee
Summary
Shifts how the Endangered Species Act would operate by prioritizing a national five-year listing work plan and formal Conservation Benefit Agreements. It focuses decisions on prioritized listing schedules, state and tribal data, and private-land deals to shape protections and permits.
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- Private landowners and developers would gain a fast-track agreement process with a 30-day completeness check and a 120-day approval or rejection window. Agreements can include incidental-take authorizations, confidentiality protections, and limited exemptions from some consultation and NEPA review.
- State, Tribal, and local governments would see their data formally counted in critical habitat and exclusion analyses and could craft recovery strategies that, if approved, limit federal protective regulations. Congress must be notified before designations or experimental releases exceeding 50,000 acres and decisions follow five-year review cycles.
- Courts, conservation groups, and federal agencies face new transparency and fee rules. The bill creates a public database of federal litigation costs and allows fee awards with a $125 hourly baseline and a $200,000 cap per suit while narrowing some consultation standards and enforcement scope.
*Would authorize specified annual appropriations for FY2026–FY2031, including about $288.0 million, $105.4 million, and $2.6 million plus smaller additions, increasing federal spending.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Private-land agreements and State recovery
If enacted, the bill would create Conservation Benefit Agreements (CBAs) that private owners, States, Tribes, and others could submit to the Secretary. The Secretary would check completeness within 30 days and must approve or reject complete CBAs within 120 days. Approved CBAs would include assurances that no new conservation measures or land-use restrictions would be required after the agreement takes effect. The bill would allow excluding qualifying private lands from critical habitat when plans meet conservation criteria. States could petition the Secretary to have State recovery strategies adopted, and the Secretary must decide on petitions within 120 days and publish the decision within 60 days. The bill would also change Section 7 consultation rules to require written statements, count only reasonably certain effects, and treat avoidance and minimization measures as beneficial.
Caps on legal fee awards for plaintiffs
If enacted, courts would be allowed to award attorney and expert fees to eligible prevailing parties in ESA suits. Hourly attorney and expert fees would be capped at $125 per hour unless a court finds a higher rate justified. Total attorney and expert fees in a single suit would be capped at $200,000. Individuals with net worth up to $2,000,000 and owners of eligible organizations with combined net worth up to $7,000,000 and up to 500 employees could qualify. Parties that sought such awards three or more times in the prior 12 months would be ineligible; multiple eligible co-plaintiffs would share the cap.
New funding for species programs
If enacted, the bill would authorize new annual appropriations for fiscal years 2026 through 2031. The amounts include $287.978 million per year, $105.4 million per year, $2.6 million per year, an additional $600,000 per year to a specified subsection, and an additional $9.9 million per year to another subsection, as spelled out in the text.
New national listing plan and reviews
If enacted, the Secretary would publish a five-fiscal-year National Listing Work Plan with the annual budget, starting with the first budget at least 365 days after enactment. The plan would schedule listing decisions, court-ordered determinations, and critical-habitat actions and require the Secretary to include needed funding each year. The Secretary would prepare economic, national security, and human health analyses at the same time as any listing decision and coordinate with affected States, local governments, and Tribes. The bill would bar judicial review of a species removal during the species' monitoring period.
Easier trade rules for non-native species
If enacted, export or import of threatened or endangered species not native to the U.S. that are listed in CITES Appendix I or II would be lawful without an ESA export/import permit when CITES and Act requirements are met. The Secretary could allow export, import, interstate transport, and sale of non-native species where the activity is "not detrimental to the survival of the species" as defined in the bill. The bill also expands the definition of "commercial activity" to include public display and education and narrows a specified enforcement subsection.
More transparency for listings and lawsuits
If enacted, the Secretary would have to give affected States the data used for listing decisions before making them. The Secretary would publish the scientific and commercial data behind listing and critical-habitat rules, excluding exact location coordinates, and grant State exemptions where State law forbids disclosure. The Fish and Wildlife Service would post its annual cost data on data.gov and include experimental-population spending. The Council on Environmental Quality would publish an annual report and keep a monthly-updated, searchable database of federal litigation spending for covered suits.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Westerman, Bruce [R-AR-4]
AR • R
Cosponsors
Rep. Hageman, Harriet M. [R-WY-At Large]
WY • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Stauber, Pete [R-MN-8]
MN • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Tiffany, Thomas P. [R-WI-7]
WI • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Gosar, Paul A. [R-AZ-9]
AZ • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Hurd, Jeff [R-CO-3]
CO • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Newhouse, Dan [R-WA-4]
WA • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Bentz, Cliff [R-OR-2]
OR • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Fulcher, Russ [R-ID-1]
ID • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Begich, Nicholas J. [R-AK-At Large]
AK • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Ezell, Mike [R-MS-4]
MS • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Amodei, Mark E. [R-NV-2]
NV • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Hunt, Wesley [R-TX-38]
TX • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Maloy, Celeste [R-UT-2]
UT • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Biggs, Andy [R-AZ-5]
AZ • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. LaMalfa, Doug [R-CA-1]
CA • R
Sponsored 3/6/2025
Rep. Boebert, Lauren [R-CO-4]
CO • R
Sponsored 3/10/2025
Rep. McDowell, Addison P. [R-NC-6]
NC • R
Sponsored 3/10/2025
Rep. Collins, Mike [R-GA-10]
GA • R
Sponsored 3/14/2025
Rep. Calvert, Ken [R-CA-41]
CA • R
Sponsored 3/14/2025
Rep. Walberg, Tim [R-MI-5]
MI • R
Sponsored 3/18/2025
Rep. Downing, Troy [R-MT-2]
MT • R
Sponsored 4/8/2025
Rep. Higgins, Clay [R-LA-3]
LA • R
Sponsored 5/15/2025
Rep. Grothman, Glenn [R-WI-6]
WI • R
Sponsored 5/20/2025
Rep. Latta, Robert E. [R-OH-5]
OH • R
Sponsored 5/20/2025
Rep. Rulli, Michael A. [R-OH-6]
OH • R
Sponsored 6/3/2025
Rep. Thompson, Glenn [R-PA-15]
PA • R
Sponsored 9/11/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov