What Does Wildlife Have To Do With Politics?
The Senate, House of Representatives and White House each play a role in making key decisions about wildlife and habitat. These decisions can range from passing and vetoing legislation, enacting bills into law, to deciding the amount of funding laws like the Endangered Species Act and individual agencies, like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, receive. Congress is also responsible for confirming Presidential nominees to key leadership positions charged with making decisions that impact wildlife. These appointments are vast and range from the very top of government agencies, like the Interior Secretary, Energy Secretary and the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, to the executive director level.
How Government Impacts Wildlife
Key Roles and Departments
Environmental Protection Agency: The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for protecting people and the environment from significant health risks. The agency also sponsors and conducts research, and develops and enforces environmental regulations.
Department of Interior: The Department of the Interior is tasked with oversight of national parks, wildlife refuges, and public lands. It enforces laws like the Endangered Species Act, restores ecosystems, monitors wildlife populations, and works with Native American tribes and local communities to ensure sustainable use and conservation of natural resources. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which specifically oversees the protection of wildlife, is part of the DOI.
Department of Energy: The Department of Energy oversees energy development and production in the U.S., and is responsible for balancing energy needs against negative impacts on the environment. Through laws like the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, the DOE must ensure new energy projects do not pose significant threat to wildlife and habitat.
Department of Agriculture: The Department of Agriculture's primary responsibility is to support and regulate agriculture, forestry and food systems in the U.S. The USDA regulates agricultural practices which, when unchecked, can lead to habitat destruction, soil degradation and pesticide use that damages ecosystems and reduces biodiversity. This department also administers conservation programs, which support agricultural producers to conserve natural resources, including wildlife habitat.
A Trump Administration, Term 2
In its first two years, the second Trump administration has already targeted the laws, safeguards and protections of America’s beloved wildlife and habitats. Here are some key challenges we are tracking and fighting against to help protect wildlife:
Harsher Endangered Species Act Attacks
There have been several rules proposed to weaken or undermine the Endangered Species Act under this administration. Each challenge to wildlife protection undermines wildlife recovery and pushes them closer to extinction. A prime example of this is the pending final rule on the longstanding definition of “harm,” which if enacted will lead to widespread destruction of habitat. Loss of habitat is already the leading threat to imperiled wildlife.
How this impacts wildlife:
When a species is delisted or downlisted it loses some — if not all — federal protections. More animals could be lost if proper protections for wildlife and their habitat do not remain in place until populations are stable.
Public Lands Used for Oil and Gas Development
The Trump administration’s Endangered Species Committee, aka “God Squad,” has demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice our wildlife by invoking a false “national security” rationale to eviscerate ESA protections for wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. On March 11, the God Squad, comprised of members of President Trump’s cabinet, unlawfully voted to exempt all and future federally authorized oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico from ESA protections, placing several endangered species directly in harm’s way. The Trump administration has also opened up Alaska's cherished Arctic and Izembek National Wildlife Refuges to oil and gas leasing.
How this impacts wildlife:
Resource development on our public lands and waters not only threatens more than a billion acres of national wild lands, but it also puts habitat for wildlife at risk and threatens America’s natural heritage.
Funding Cuts to Federal Agencies Overseeing Wildlife Conservation Programs
The Trump administration continues to slash funding and undermine the effectiveness of the federal agencies overseeing wildlife and public land protections. This includes cuts to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Forest Service and National Wildlife Refuge System, among many others. To effectively protect wildlife and our public lands, each of these agencies require resources and the expertise of a highly skilled, dedicated workforce to properly study, monitor and protect species and their habitats. Additionally, many programs have had funding halted further putting the most at risk species in danger of extinction.
How this impacts wildlife:
To properly protect wildlife and ensure the best science is used for decision making, it is critical for agencies to have the resources and staff needed to be effective. With less funding allocated to wildlife protection, species who need fast action to prevent their extinction may have to wait even longer for warranted protections.
Featured Attack H.R. 1897: ESA Amendments Act of 2025
H.R. 1897, the “ESA Amendments Act of 2025”, is one of the worst-ever attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act by demolishing many of its core tenets, warping its foundational reliance on the best available science, increasing the potential for political interference, and drastically reducing protections for imperiled species.
The Congressional Review Act – What it is and why you should care
The name sounds benign, but its potential effects are anything but.
The Congressional Review Act is an obscure law enacted in 1996 that allows Congress 60 legislative days to use an expedited process to reject and invalidate certain federal regulations, even ones that have been in effect for months. This law not only immediately halts the protections afforded by those regulations but also bans federal agencies from providing similar protections in the future because new rules cannot be “substantially similar” to the rule that was rejected.
Why You Should Care
Agencies may be less likely to take on a multi-year rulemaking process for fear it will be rejected for being similar to a rule that was rejected under a CRA resolution – even though there is no exact definition of “substantially similar.” Many environmental, public lands and public health protections finalized in the last months of the Biden administration may be affected.
