Nutria Eradication and Control Reauthorization Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. HARDER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, the Nutria Eradication and Control Reauthorization Act of 2025, because communities in California and across the country are in a war right now against these giant swamp rats.

My bill would reauthorize funding to strengthen eradication efforts for the invasive swamp rats, nutria, which are destroying our levees, harming local farmland, and infecting our very drinking water.

These 40-pound monsters are larger than the average dog. They eat 25 percent of their body weight every day and can reproduce 200 offspring every single year.

In 2023 alone, 78 percent of the nutria found in California were in newly infested areas, threatening our entire way of life. The only way to stop their spreading invasion is to support local eradication and control efforts.

In 2020, I was proud to work with President Trump to bring nutria eradication funding to California for the first time ever. Now, the funding is set to expire at the end of this fiscal year, right when we need it most. This comes at a time when our district is at a breaking point with nutria control efforts.

Last year, more than 1,300 nutria were captured in California, which is a record-breaking year for takings in the State.

We must reauthorize the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 to ensure States like California, Louisiana, and Florida are able to effectively curb the spread of this swamp rat once and for all.

We know that following wildlife management techniques to control and eradicate nutria is effective. For instance, the Chesapeake Bay region successfully eradicated nutria from their communities in 2018 after almost two decades of infestation.

We can't afford to let our foot off of the gas in California now. It is up to us to reauthorize this program to ensure that nutria is not only eradicated in the Chesapeake Bay region but in the United States.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass my bill to stop this infestation from poisoning our waterways and damaging our communities. I also want to take the time to thank my colleague, Mr. Valadao, for his tireless support of this legislation.

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