Co-Sponsor the Safeguarding Endangered Species from Harm Act

I’m writing to urge you to co-sponsor and advance the Safeguarding Endangered Species from Harm Act. The Trump administration just deleted the regulatory definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act, stripping away the rule that made habitat destruction illegal. That's not a narrowing — it's an erasure. Developers can now bulldoze critical habitat without a permit, as long as no animal is directly killed in the act. This gutting of the ESA threatens species like the Northern Spotted Owl, the gray wolf, and the ocelot, which has been protected since 1982 precisely because habitat loss in southern Texas pushed it toward extinction. Stanford biologist Rodolfo Dirzo calls this a "grotesque narrowing," and he's right. Habitat loss is the primary driver of species decline — disease and hunting are secondary. A law that ignores habitat is a law that protects almost nothing. The ESA passed the Senate in 1973 without a single no vote. That consensus existed because Congress understood that protecting species means protecting where they live. Courts will eventually weigh in, but litigation takes years — and habitat destroyed in the meantime is gone permanently. This legislation is the fastest path to restoring the protection that was deleted. I urge you to support H.R. 9901. Thank you.

First sent on July 30 by Mark