{"id":2323,"date":"2025-07-17T08:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T08:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/2323\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T08:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T08:37:13","slug":"hagemans-bill-to-delist-grizzlies-passes-house-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/2323\/","title":{"rendered":"Hageman\u2019s Bill To Delist Grizzlies Passes House Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014\u00a0 A\u00a0U.S. House\u00a0committee advanced legislation Tuesday sponsored by U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, to remove Yellowstone-area grizzly bears from the Endangered Species Act list.<\/p>\n

The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee voted 20-19 along party lines for the Grizzly Bear State Management Act. The bill now goes to the House floor.<\/p>\n

Hageman, a member of the panel, said Tuesday the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly population has fully recovered and now numbers about 1,100.<\/p>\n

If enacted into law, Hageman\u2019s bill would reopen the possibility of grizzly hunts managed by state wildlife officials.<\/p>\n

Such hunts were set for Wyoming and Idaho after the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in President Donald Trump\u2019s first term took the animal off the list.<\/p>\n

But a federal judge in Montana blocked the 2017 delisting, faulting the data the agency used to justify it.<\/p>\n

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen halted the hunts, which were set to take place in the fall of 2018 under strict rules that included quotas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

No Judicial Review<\/p>\n

Grizzly bears in the Lower 48 were put on the ESA list in 1975. They were categorized as \u201cthreatened,\u201d a status of protection that remains today.<\/p>\n

Hageman\u2019s bill would not only take the GYE grizzly population back off the list by restoring the Fish & Wildlife rule made in 2017, but it would prevent judicial review as well.<\/p>\n

The Endangered Species Act has been abused by \u201cradical environmental organizations and activist judges,\u201d Hageman said at Tuesday\u2019s session.<\/p>\n

The top Democrat on the Natural Resources panel, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman of California, said the language in Hageman\u2019s bill barring judicial review sets a bad precedent.<\/p>\n

\u201cScientists, tribes and industries also use the courts\u201d just as environmental groups do, Huffman said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Tuesday\u2019s vote, Democrats offered three amendments, including one to cut out the ban on judicial review. All were shot down on party-line votes.<\/p>\n

On the bill itself, four Republicans did not vote. All of the Democrats on the panel cast votes against the measure.<\/p>\n

\u2018Poster Child\u2019<\/p>\n

Hageman said the animal\u2019s removal is long overdue in accordance with the Endangered Species Act, based on its recovery.<\/p>\n

She said there is a pattern of animals remaining on the list beyond what their populations warrant, and the grizzly is the best example.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grizzly is in fact the poster child for how the ESA has failed,\u201d Hageman said, though she added some animals rightfully remain on the list, like the California condor.<\/p>\n

Hageman credited the\u00a0Wyoming\u00a0Game and Fish Department, not the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, with the grizzly\u2019s recovery in Wyoming.<\/p>\n

She said the department has nine employees dedicated to grizzly management, and no one in the federal agency matches their expertise.\u00a0Wyoming\u2019s program involves research and monitoring, conflict management, education and outreach.<\/p>\n

Nesvik Still Waiting<\/p>\n

Echoing common complaints by Republican U.S. Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Hageman said the bears pose an increasing threat to people and livestock.<\/p>\n

Lummis, a member of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, recently complained that environmentalists only see the grizzly as \u201ccharismatic megafauna.\u201d<\/p>\n

She made the comment as that committee was weighing the nomination of Brian Nesvik, a former Wyoming Game and Fish director, to head up Fish & Wildlife.<\/p>\n

The panel\u00a0approved his nomination<\/a>\u00a0in March,\u00a0but the full Senate has yet to vote.<\/p>\n

Sacred Animal To Many<\/p>\n

Huffman,\u00a0a\u00a0California Democrat on the House panel with Hageman, raised objections beyond the banning of court review of the rule, as Hageman\u2019s bill would do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWiping out predators throws the entire ecosystem out of balance,\u201d Huffman said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He and other Democrats also said delisting is an affront to Native Americans, many of whom view the grizzly as sacred.<\/p>\n

The animal has \u201cprofound spiritual and cultural significance\u201d for them, said U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Oregon.<\/p>\n

Hageman noted that Wyoming\u2019s management plan for the bear involves tribal consultation.<\/p>\n

Democrats said there is not enough of it, and Hageman said there is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a strong regard for tribal consultation,\u201d Hageman added.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, testifies for the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, for her bill that would delist grizzly bears and bar judges from overruling the delisting. (House Committee on Natural Resources GOP via YouTube)Ammo & Tackle<\/p>\n

Hageman\u2019s bill was one of 12 that the House Natural Resources panel sent to the floor Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ten of those bills had bipartisan support and moved as a package under unanimous consent. But like Hageman\u2019s bill, a measure on hunting and fishing gear was contentious.<\/p>\n

The Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act\u00a0by U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Virginia, has to do with ammo and tackle containing lead.<\/p>\n

The bill would bar Fish & Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service from prohibiting or regulating the use of lead ammunition or tackle on federal land or water, leaving it up to states.<\/p>\n

The bill makes exceptions for specified existing regulations, and where those agencies determine that a decline in wildlife population at a\u00a0specific federal land or water is primarily caused by the use of lead in ammunition or tackle.<\/p>\n

Those exceptions were not enough to satisfy most Democrats\u2019 concerns about contamination. The vote to advance it was 23-17.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sean Barry can be reached at sean@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014\u00a0 A\u00a0U.S. House\u00a0committee advanced legislation Tuesday sponsored by U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, to remove Yellowstone-area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-2323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}