I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 99
To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to provide for improved
precision in the listing, delisting, and downlisting of endangered species
and potentially endangered species.
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 provide
for improved precision in the listing, delisting, and
downlisting of endangered species and potentially endan-
gered species.
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 ‘‘Less Imprecision in 4
Species Treatment Act of 2023’’ or the ‘‘LIST Act of 5
2023’’. 6
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:20 Jan 14, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H99.IH H99
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2
•HR 99 IH
SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO INITIATE DELISTING. 1
(a) R
EQUIREMENT INCASE OFRECOVERY.—Section 2
4(b) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 3
1533(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(9)(A) The Secretary shall initiate the proce-5
dures in accordance with subsection (a)(1) to remove 6
a species from a list published under subsection (c) 7
if— 8
‘‘(i) the goals of a recovery plan for the 9
species developed under subsection (f) have 10
been met; or 11
‘‘(ii) the goals for recovery of the species 12
have not been developed under subsection (f), 13
and the Secretary determines that the species 14
has recovered sufficiently to no longer require 15
the protection of the Act. 16
‘‘(B) Notwithstanding the requirement of sub-17
section (c)(2) that each determination under sub-18
paragraph (B) of that subsection shall be made in 19
accordance with the provisions of subsections (a) 20
and (b), the Secretary shall remove a species from 21
any list published under subsection (c) if the De-22
partment of the Interior has produced or received 23
substantial scientific or commercial information 24
demonstrating that the species is recovered or that 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:20 Jan 14, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H99.IH H99
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3
•HR 99 IH
recovery goals set for the species under subsection 1
(f) have been met. 2
‘‘(C) In the case of a species removed under 3
subparagraph (A) from a list published under sub-4
section (c), the publication and notice under sub-5
section (b)(5) shall consist solely of a notice of such 6
removal.’’. 7
(b) R
EQUIREMENT IN CASEERRONEOUSLY OR 8
W
RONGFULLYLISTED.—Section 4(b)(3) of the Endan-9
gered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533(a)), as amend-10
ed by subsection (a), is further amended by adding at the 11
end the following: 12
‘‘(H)(i) Not later than 90 days after the 13
date the Department of the Interior receives or 14
produces under this subsection information de-15
scribed in clause (ii) regarding a species in-16
cluded in a list under subsection (c), the Sec-17
retary shall to the maximum extent practicable 18
find whether the inclusion of such species in 19
such list was less than likely to have occurred 20
in the absence of the scientific or commercial 21
information referred to in clause (ii). 22
‘‘(ii) Information referred to in clause (i) is 23
any information demonstrating that the listing 24
was determined on the basis of scientific or 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:20 Jan 14, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H99.IH H99
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4
•HR 99 IH
commercial information available to, or received 1
or produced by, the Department under para-2
graphs (1) and (3) of subsection (b) that at the 3
time the scientific or commercial information 4
was available to or received or produced by the 5
Department it was— 6
‘‘(I) inaccurate beyond scientifically 7
reasonable margins of error; 8
‘‘(II) fraudulent; or 9
‘‘(III) misrepresentative. 10
‘‘(iii) Notwithstanding the requirement 11
under subsection (c)(2)(B) that each determina-12
tion under subparagraph (B) shall be made in 13
accordance with the provisions of subsections 14
(a) and (b), the Secretary shall— 15
‘‘(I) remove from any list published 16
under subsection (c) any species for which 17
a positive finding is made under clause (i); 18
and 19
‘‘(II) promptly publish in the Federal 20
Register notice of such finding that in-21
cludes such information as was received or 22
produced by the Department under such 23
clause. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:20 Jan 14, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H99.IH H99
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5
•HR 99 IH
‘‘(iv) Any positive finding by the Secretary 1
under clause (i) shall not be subject to judicial 2
review. 3
‘‘(v) Any negative finding by the Secretary 4
under clause (i) shall be subject to judicial re-5
view. 6
‘‘(vi) In the case of a species removed 7
under clause (iii) from a list, the publication 8
and notice under subsection (b)(5) shall consist 9
solely of a notice of such removal. 10
‘‘(vii) If the Secretary finds that a person 11
submitted a petition that is the subject of a 12
positive finding under clause (i) knowing that it 13
contained scientific or commercial information 14
described in clause (ii), then during the 10-year 15
period beginning on the date of the finding 16
under this clause the person shall not be consid-17
ered an interested person for purposes of sub-18
paragraph (A) with respect to any petition sub-19
mitted by the person after the date the person 20
submitted such scientific or commercial infor-21
mation.’’. 22
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:20 Jan 14, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H99.IH H99
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6
•HR 99 IH
SEC. 3. EXPANDED CONSIDERATION DURING FIVE-YEAR 1
REVIEW. 2
Section 4(c) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 3
(16 U.S.C. 1533(c)) is amended by adding at the end the 4
following: 5
‘‘(3) Each determination under paragraph 6
(2)(B) shall consider one of the following: 7
‘‘(A) Except as provided in subparagraph 8
(B) of this paragraph, the criteria required 9
under subsection (f)(1)(B) in the recovery plan 10
for the species. 11
‘‘(B) If the objective, measurable criteria 12
under subsection (f)(1)(B)(ii) are not estab-13
lished, the factors for the determination that a 14
species is an endangered species or a threatened 15
species set forth in subsections (a)(1) and 16
(b)(1). 17
‘‘(C) A finding of error in the determina-18
tion that the species is an endangered species, 19
a threatened species, or extinct. 20
‘‘(D) A determination that the species is 21
no longer an endangered species or threatened 22
species or in danger of extinction, based on an 23
analysis of the factors that are the basis for 24
listing in subsections (a)(1) and (b)(1).’’. 25
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:20 Jan 14, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H99.IH H99
pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB