{"id":627062,"date":"2026-09-17T02:24:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T02:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627062\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T02:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T02:24:42","slug":"trumps-endangered-species-habitat-rule-repeal-faces-pushback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627062\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s endangered species habitat rule repeal faces pushback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill is pushing back on a seismic shift in US environmental regulation<\/a> that experts say exposes previously protected endangered species\u2019 habitats to destruction from land use such as logging and real estate development.\n <\/p>\n

\n In July, the Trump administration repealed a 50-year-old regulatory rule that has protected certain wildlife habitats under the Endangered Species Act, a move that has drawn legal challenges from environmental groups<\/a> and a coalition of 20 states and Washington, DC.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Some lawmakers in both GOP-controlled chambers of Congress are also looking to block the change, which officially took effect Monday<\/a>. Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Sheldon Whitehouse last month introduced<\/a> a type of joint resolution<\/a> that allows for a simple majority vote to nullify the change.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe senators will look to force a vote in the coming weeks,\u201d a spokesperson from Schiff\u2019s office told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

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\n In the House, Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley introduced a bill<\/a> to block the rule repeal shortly after the administration announced the finalized version.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFor more than fifty years, our nation\u2019s protections have reflected a basic legal, scientific, and commonsense truth: when habitat destruction actually kills or injures protected wildlife, that destruction is harm,\u201d Fitzpatrick said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThe Administration\u2019s rule would erase that longstanding safeguard through regulatory action and leave vulnerable species exposed at the precise moment the law is intended to protect them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Since the 1970s, the now-repealed agency rule has defined illegal \u201charm\u201d to Endangered Species Act-protected wildlife as including habitat degradation that kills by disrupting breeding, feeding or sheltering.\n <\/p>\n

\n The repeal, which leaves the word \u201charm\u201d with no regulatory definition, eliminates a primary mechanism by which the Endangered Species Act has protected such habitats from destruction, Deborah Sivas, co-director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford University, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

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The forecast is just the beginning. We\u2019ll\u202fsend you expert coverage and the stories behind the weather \u2014 so you always know more than just the number. Sign up for the newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The Interior Department said<\/a> repealing the harm definition \u201creturns the interpretation of the (Endangered Species Act) back to its actual text and original intent, which will end years of federal overreach.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The department emphasized that \u201cactions that directly injure or kill listed wildlife will continue to be prohibited.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The majority of native endangered species protected by the Endangered Species Act are threatened by habitat loss,<\/a> according to experts. Far fewer are threatened by direct killing, such as hunting.\n <\/p>\n

\n The House bill, the Safeguarding Endangered Species Act, now has six additional cosponsors, Casey-Lee Waldron, a spokesperson for Fitzpatrick, told CNN. All of the new cosponsors are Democrats, and the bill remains in the House Committee on Natural Resources, according to the bill\u2019s profile<\/a> on Congress\u2019 website.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill is pushing back on a seismic shift in US environmental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-627062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}