Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) completed initial reviews of two petitions to list gray wolves in the western United States under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). USFWS subsequently announced they would initiate a 12-month comprehensive status review of the gray wolf. Chairman Dan Newhouse (WA-04) and Vice Chair Bruce Westerman (AR-04) released the following statements:

“The gray wolf is an Endangered Species Act success story," said Chairman Newhouse. "Through partnerships between states, local communities, tribes, private landowners, and the federal government, we have worked to restore gray wolf species throughout the western United States and celebrated their recovery by removing them from the endangered species list. Less than a month ago, the Biden Administration upheld the Trump Administration’s delisting, allowing local species managers to continue their successful efforts. While it is disappointing - but not at all surprising - to see litigious environmental groups once again waste resources that could be used to aid species that are actually endangered, I look forward to the wolf’s delisting being upheld as the best available science and comprehensive state and local management plans are reviewed.”

"Once again, radical special interest groups have hijacked the ESA and are wasting taxpayer resources," said Vice Chair Westerman, Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee. "Forcing agencies to conduct meaningless reviews to examine recovered species is not accomplishing any long-term goals when state wildlife experts are already managing and caring for species local to their communities. It is also disappointing that the Biden administration is caving to these groups and giving credence to these petitions instead of proactively working with states on actual recovery mechanisms. Absent political interference, this review will almost certainly show state management is more than adequate in preserving wolves across the West."
 
Background:
 
In June, Chairman Newhouse hosted Rep. Tom Tiffany (WI-07) and Todd Myers, Director of the Center for the Environment of the Washington Policy Center, on an episode of the Congressional Western Caucus podcast, A Voice for Rural America, to discuss the successful delisting of the gray wolf and its impact on rural communities. Click here to listen: "Impacts of a Weaponized Endangered Species Act: The Case of the Gray Wolf."