Gianforte Bill Outlines Further ESA Rollbacks

While federal debate rages over the future of the Endangered Species Act, Montana’s representative in the U.S. House says the Trump administration’s rollbacks last month don’t go far enough.

Republican Greg Gianforte introduced a bill making it easier to delist species protected by the ESA at a Congressional Western Caucus roundtable in Washington D.C. Tuesday.

“We must restore the ESA back to its original purpose of recovering species, not lining the pockets of environmental extremist groups,” he said.

Called the LIST Act, it was part of a suite of nearly 20 bills that would weaken ESA protections across the country.

The legislation comes in the wake of Department of the Interior rules finalized in August that dull the ESA. Critics say those rules paint a bleak future for vulnerable species as biodiversity plummets across the globe. Gianforte and other supporters of ESA changes say the document needs modernization, more efficiency and more transparency.

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