House Interior Appropriations Bill Contains Devastating Attacks on Wildlife

Defenders of Wildlife strongly condemns the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed Interior and Environment spending bill for Fiscal Year 2026 which includes numerous poison pill policy riders that undermine the Endangered Species Act and protections for individual species. The bill also includes additional riders that diminish protections for America’s wildlife, public lands and waters.

“This budget proposal shows yet again the extremes to which anti-wildlife members of Congress will go to sacrifice endangered species,” said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife. “The bill is loaded with riders that attack the Endangered Species Act and would put some of America’s most iconic species, including the grizzly bear and wolverine, at serious risk of extinction. By blocking protections for public lands while also providing short-sighted lease sales for the benefit of oil and gas corporations, the bill and all who support it are compromising the crucial habitats, outdoor recreation areas and natural resources that Americans and wildlife rely on.”

Of its most egregious provisions, the bill slashes funding for listing threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act by two-thirds and includes poison-pill riders that would:

• Block all funding for listing the greater sage-grouse and for implementing the new range wide plans to conserve the species.  
• Delist the gray wolf.  
• Delist the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear population.  
• Block funding for protecting the wolverine.
• Block funding for protecting the northern long-eared bat.  
• Block funding for protecting the lesser prairie-chicken.
• Block funding for protecting captive fish listed under the ESA, like sturgeon.
• Block funding for reintroducing grizzly bears to the North Cascades Ecosystem.  
• Block funding for reintroducing grizzly bears to the Bitterroot ecosystem.  
• Block Biden-era ESA rules.  
• Block funding for the protection of seven freshwater mussel species in Texas.
• Reissue a harmful rule overturning legal precedent set by the “Cottonwood” court case.
• Block the BLM Conservation and Landscape Health Rule, which puts conserving wildlife and ecosystems on par with other uses of public lands.
• Block funding for reintroduction of American bison on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
• Block funding for the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge land protection plan.
• Promote continued expansion of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.
• Mandate issuing at least four onshore oil and gas lease sales in any state where there is land available, including Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada and Alaska.

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For inquiries, please contact Communications Director, Maggie Dewane at mdewane@defenders.org