I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 97
To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to further restrict the Sec-
retary of the Interior from designating certain lands used for national
defense-related purposes as critical habitats for any species under that
Act and to broaden exclusions and exemptions from that Act for such
defense-related purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2023
Mr. B
IGGSintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to further
restrict the Secretary of the Interior from designating
certain lands used for national defense-related purposes
as critical habitats for any species under that Act and
to broaden exclusions and exemptions from that Act for
such defense-related purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Armed Forces Endan-4
gered Species Exemption Act’’. 5
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•HR 97 IH
SEC. 2. EXCLUSION OF MILITARY INSTITUTIONS AS CRIT-1
ICAL HABITAT. 2
Section 4(a)(3)(B) of the Endangered Species Act of 3
1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533(a)(3)(B)) is amended to read as 4
follows: 5
‘‘(i) The Secretary shall not designate 6
as critical habitat— 7
‘‘(I) any military installation or a 8
State-owned National Guard installa-9
tion, or any portion thereof, as such 10
terms are defined in section 100 of 11
the Sikes Act (16 U.S.C. 670); or 12
‘‘(II) any other lands, waters, or 13
geographical area not described in 14
clause (i) that is otherwise designated 15
for use by the Secretary of Defense 16
including by any contractor of the De-17
partment of Defense, if the Secretary 18
of Defense determines in writing and 19
submitted to the Secretary of the In-20
terior that such area is necessary for 21
military training, weapons testing, or 22
any other reason determined appro-23
priate by such Secretary of Defense. 24
‘‘(ii) The Secretary of Defense shall 25
not be required to consult with the Sec-26
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•HR 97 IH
retary of the Interior, under section 1
7(a)(2) of this Act with respect to agency 2
action, regardless of whether the area de-3
scribed in clause (i) is subject to an inte-4
grated natural resources management plan 5
prepared under section 101 of the Sikes 6
Act (16 U.S.C. 670a).’’. 7
SEC. 3. ADDITIONAL EXCLUSIONS AND EXEMPTIONS FROM 8
THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT FOR DE-9
FENSE-RELATED OPERATIONS. 10
Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 11
(16 U.S.C. 1539) is amended by adding at the end the 12
following new subsection: 13
‘‘(h) E
XCLUSION FORNATIONALDEFENSE-RELATED 14
O
PERATIONS.— 15
‘‘(1) E
XCLUSIONS.—The prohibitions under sec-16
tion 9 shall not apply with respect to— 17
‘‘(A) the taking of any endangered species 18
or threatened species, or the importation or ex-19
portation of any such species taken as prohib-20
ited by such section, by military personnel en-21
gaged in a national defense-related operation; 22
‘‘(B) damaging or destroying any threat-23
ened or endangered species, or removing, cut-24
ting, digging up, damaging, or destroying any 25
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•HR 97 IH
such species, by military personnel engaged in 1
a national defense-related operation; or 2
‘‘(C) an injury to or mortality of a threat-3
ened or endangered species that results from, 4
but is not the purpose of, a national defense-re-5
lated operation, 6
regardless of whether the operation is conducted on 7
a military installation or other area described in sec-8
tion 4(a)(3)(B)(i). 9
‘‘(2) D
EFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this 10
subsection— 11
‘‘(A) the term ‘national defense-related op-12
eration’ means— 13
‘‘(i) research, development, testing, 14
and evaluation of military munitions, other 15
ordnance, and weapons systems; 16
‘‘(ii) the training of members of the 17
Armed Forces in the use and handling of 18
military munitions, other ordnance, and 19
weapons systems; 20
‘‘(iii) general training and military 21
preparedness; or 22
‘‘(iv) any action or duty that the Sec-23
retary of Defense deems necessary to sup-24
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•HR 97 IH
port the Department of Defense in its mis-1
sion; and 2
‘‘(B) the term ‘military personnel’ 3
means— 4
‘‘(i) a member of the Armed Forces; 5
and 6
‘‘(ii) a civilian employee or contractor 7
(including a subcontractor at any tier) of 8
the— 9
‘‘(I) Department of Defense (in-10
cluding a nonappropriated fund in-11
strumentality of the Department); or 12
‘‘(II) any other Federal agency, 13
or any provisional authority, to the 14
extent such employment relates to 15
supporting the mission of the Depart-16
ment of Defense overseas.’’. 17
Æ
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