The U.S. House of Representatives moved Wednesday to delay a vote on legislation that hundreds of environmental groups said would have dangerous consequences for America’s endangered and threatened species.
The bill sought to revise the 1973 Endangered Species Act, shifting responsibility for around 1,700 species to state, local and tribe governments and expanding the capabilities of the “God Squad”, the nickname for a panel of seven Cabinet-level members who have the ability to decide a species’ fate.
Environmentalists, politicians and Titanic actor Leonardo DiCaprio have called for members of Congress to reject the measure, saying that states didn’t have the resources or legal mechanisms that are necessary to protect species and their habitat.
Following the House’s action on Wednesday, several groups and politicians celebrated the news. The non-profit Sierra Club said it was encouraged to see the bill pulled after bipartisan “outcry.”
“By rejecting a bill that would have gutted protections for endangered and threatened species across the country, Congress is sending a clear message that protecting wildlife is a shared American value, not a partisan issue,” Sierra Club Deputy Legislative Director for Wildlife and Lands Protection Bradley Williams said in a statement.
“The vast majority of Americans want Congress to protect endangered wildlife from extinction — not gut the Endangered Species Act,” Addie Haughey, Legislative Director for Lands, Wildlife, and Oceans at the non-profit Earthjustice Action, said in a statement shared with The Independent.
“After hearing from their constituents, Members of Congress from across the country recognized today that this bill is extremely unpopular. We need policies and funding directed at protecting and recovering the wildlife we all love, and this reckless bill was not going to get us there,” she said.
The non-profit Humane World for Animals told The Independent it is monitoring the bill and said the vote was postponed after it “became clear there was sufficient opposition to prevent its passage.”
“On Earth Day, pulling the House vote on the deeply flawed Endangered Species Act bill is a clarion call that legislators need to stop heeding their own leadership and start doing the will of their constituents,” Sara Amundson, president of the Humane World for Animals Action Fund, said in a statement.
While House leadership did not provide a reason for the delay, Politico previously reported that some Florida Republicans had concerns about the bill.
Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna posted a message of support for the ESA on Tuesday.
“Don’t tread on my turtles. Protected means protected. #EndangeredSpeciesAct,” she wrote on X.
Fellow Republican congressman Rep. Bruce Westerman introduced the bill, saying that the ESA need to be amended to return power to private landowners and “away from litigious environmental activist groups.”
Republicans have been trying to change the ESA for years, but have largely remained unsuccessful.
The Independent’s request for comment from Westerman was not immediately returned.
While Wednesday marks a temporary win for ESA supporters, the future of the bill is still up in the air.
It’s not yet clear if the GOP will rally support and reschedule a vote on the bill.
The ESA had bipartisan support when it was passed under President Richard Nixon more than 50 years ago.
That’s something DiCaprio, a longstanding environmentalist and philanthropist, pointed out.
“The ESA was signed into law over 50 years ago by President Nixon after passing 92-0 in the Senate and 355-4 in the House, ensuring the safeguarding of species and ecosystems that sustain us,” he said on Instagram.
Since then, the ESA has helped more than 99 percent of its species listed as threatened and endangered to avoid extinction, according to the Department of the Interior. Although, only a small number of species have been recovered from extinction.
A recent national poll showed 84 percent of Americans support the ESA.
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