The Law That Brought the Eagle Back
The Endangered Species Act — fifty years of documented success — is going to a House floor vote this week. Possibly today.
In 1963, fewer than 450 nesting pairs of bald eagles remained in the continental United States. The species that appears on the national seal, on currency, on the iconography of the country itself, nearly gone. By 2007, there were nearly 10,000 nesting pairs. The bald eagle was delisted. It had been pulled back from the edge.
The same story runs through the American alligator. The gray wolf. The peregrine falcon. The humpback whale. The whooping crane. The grizzly bear. These are conservation success stories that happened because the Endangered Species Act of 1973 made extinction legally difficult. Signed into law by Richard Nixon, the ESA gave the federal government a mandate, not a suggestion, to protect any species at risk of disappearing forever, and to protect the habitat those species depend on. In fifty years, over 99% of species listed under the ESA have not gone extinct. That's the record.
Now the House of Representatives may vote this week — possibly today, Earth Day — on H.R. 1897, the ESA Amendments Act of 2025, introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR). The bill passed out of committee in December 2025. Speaker Mike Johnson is bringing it to the floor.
What H.R. 1897 actually does
- Extends the timelines for listing species as threatened or endangered, allowing populations to keep declining while the paperwork is still pending
- Weakens the "best available science" standard by requiring agencies to weigh economic impact data alongside biological data, effectively putting financial interests on equal footing with extinction risk
- Shifts key implementation responsibilities to state governments, many of which lack the resources, legal frameworks, or political will to protect species that extractive industries want access to
- Narrows critical habitat protections, making it easier to develop land that listed species depend on to survive
- Adds new bureaucratic burdens to an already understaffed Fish and Wildlife Service
- Creates pathways for the "God Squad," a cabinet-level committee, to grant exemptions from ESA protections. That committee has already approved an unprecedented exemption for fossil fuel operations in the Gulf of Mexico this year
Nearly 300 organizations — Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Sierra Club, the Endangered Species Coalition, and hundreds of regional and local groups — have signed letters calling on Congress to vote no. Earthjustice has warned that if this bill passes, protections for the Florida manatee, the monarch butterfly, and the California spotted owl would immediately decrease.
We make art about living things. That's the whole premise. And the hard truth is that a lot of what inspires this work: the biodiversity of the Amazon basin, the migratory corridors of the mountain West, the ecosystems our partner communities have lived inside for generations is still here because protections like the ESA have held the line. H.R. 1897 is a bet that we don't need to hold it anymore. We vehemntly disagree.
What you can do — time is critical
Contact your House representative today
The vote may happen today. Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative. Tell them to vote NO on H.R. 1897. Calls matter more than emails on floor vote days — one call from a constituent is worth dozens of form letters.
Use the Coalition's letter tool
The Endangered Species Coalition has a pre-built letter tool that sends directly to your representatives. Go to endangered.org/take-action — it takes under five minutes and you can personalize your message.
Share this Dispatch + go deeper
Text this page to someone in your network who cares about birds, wildlife, or public lands. Then read the full history at endangered.org. Follow @endangeredspeciescoalition and amplify their posts — especially today.
Support the Endangered Species Coalition
Donate directly at endangered.org/ways-to-give and join their activist network to stay current on every ESA threat as it develops. Endangered Species Day is May 15th — mark it.
Sources: Endangered Species Coalition · Sierra Club · Earthjustice · Common Dreams · Humane World for Animals · Congress.gov · U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. All figures current as of April 22, 2026.