Make State Wildlife Action Plans Efficient Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1676 will improve the State-led conservation of priority fish and wildlife resources by improving the efficiency of the State Wildlife Action Plan review process.

State wildlife managers in every U.S. State are facing increasing challenges. Nationwide, more than one-third of all plant and animal species face heightened risks of extinction.

State Wildlife Action Plans are essential to proactively conserving fish and wildlife, rather than waiting for populations to decline to a point where they need Endangered Species Act protections. These plans provide a comprehensive assessment of the status of States' wildlife populations, key habitats, and strategies to keep the populations strong.

Each year, these funds provide States with upwards of $54.4 million to conserve species and critical habitats. These funds have enabled numerous success stories, including research and conservation for the rare Sierra Nevada red fox in California and the Cook Inlet beluga whales in Alaska.

States must update and resubmit their action plans every 10 years to qualify for annual State wildlife funds. This year, dozens of States are going through their annual process. They are concerned than an already thin Fish and Wildlife workforce will have a difficult time processing these plans in a timely fashion.

This bill would redirect the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the States to work together to speed up State Wildlife Action Plan review processes, and it would codify the Fish and Wildlife Service's current practice of automatic implementation, while a plan is in review, to ensure that States don't lose access to these critical conservation funds while the service reviews their plans.

At the same time, this bill would maintain the standards by which these plans are reviewed, ensuring that these Federal dollars are used responsibly and as Congress intended.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R.

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Ms. RANDALL. Mr. Speaker, I support this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to do so, as well.

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