Improving Species Recovery Act

Before deciding whether to list a species as threatened or endangered, the Secretary would set clear standards for when threats and demographic conditions would no longer meet the legal definitions, if doing so would encourage voluntary conservation. Listing decisions would also have to describe the species’ starting condition, including the data, assumptions, and important uncertainties behind it.

Recovery plans would identify priority research questions and scientific data gaps, as well as science-based milestones for measuring progress toward no longer meeting the definitions of threatened or endangered. At least once every 3 years, the Secretary would report on recovery efforts and species’ status, and make summarized information for each listed species public.

Within 3 years after enactment, the Secretary would issue regulations explaining how voluntary conservation actions factor into decisions to remove a species from the list. The regulations would cover working with States and others after removal and how the Secretary determines whether conservation actions will continue and remain effective into the foreseeable future.

Where prudent and determinable, rules for listed species would include objective criteria, including conservation milestones, that can trigger additional flexibility. The Secretary could also use milestones as triggers for flexibility in certain rules, measures, and permits, and prioritize species that meet milestones when allocating conservation funds under existing programs.

The Secretary would expand the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Information for Planning and Consultation tool, subject to available appropriations, by identifying and producing more decision tools for categories of agency actions. Within 1 year after enactment, the Secretary would study whether digital technology or artificial intelligence could speed up or automate other Endangered Species Act processes while meeting the Act’s requirements, and report the results to Congress.