"The House passed a final spending bill on January 8 with deep cuts to the Department of the Interior. While the bill holds steady the budget for the National Park Service, it cuts the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing budget by 44 percent, bringing it to 2004 levels. The legislation will now head to the Senate where it is expected to pass.
“This isn’t just a budget cut — it’s American bumblebees, monarch butterflies and hundreds more species losing their last shot at survival,” said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Trump administration and this Republican-led Congress have been an absolute disaster for the natural world and future generations. Extinction is forever, and we don’t have time for this nonsense.”
The Center says the cuts to USFWS will hamstring the program in charge of determining which animals and plants deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Service is currently facing a backlog of more than 400 species awaiting consideration for protection, and it has already lost 18 percent of its staff under the Trump administration, including more than 500 biologists."
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