ESA Amendments Act of 2024

This bill amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to prioritize conservation resources, incentivize private land conservation, create greater incentives for species recovery, increase transparency and accountability, and limit reasonable and prudent measures. Sec. 2, Definitions: It gives legal force to a 2019 rule defining 'foreseeable future,' adds a definition of 'habitat' for critical habitat designations, and defines 'environmental baseline' for consultations. Sec. 3, Authorization of appropriations: It authorizes specific funding amounts for fiscal years 2025 through 2030 for the Endangered Species Act, including $302,025,000 for listing and recovery, $116,630,000 for cooperative endangered species conservation, and $2,600,000 for conservation of endangered species in other countries. Sec. 4, Rule of construction: It states that nothing in the bill enlarges or diminishes a state's authority to manage fish and wildlife. Title I, Optimizing conservation through resource prioritization: It requires the Secretary to create a national listing work plan with a 5-year schedule for listing petitions, reviews, and critical habitat designations, assigning each species a priority from 1 (highest) to 5. Title II, Incentivizing wildlife conservation on private lands: It requires the Secretary to consider net conservation benefits from Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances when making listing determinations, and it prohibits designating privately owned land as critical habitat if it is under a qualifying conservation plan. Title III, Providing for greater incentives to recover listed species: It modifies protective regulations for threatened species to require objective, incremental recovery goals that decrease in stringency as goals are met, allows states to develop recovery strategies, requires rulemaking within 30 days of a 5-year review determination, and bars judicial review of a species' removal from the list during a monitoring period. Title IV, Creating greater transparency and accountability in recovering listed species: It requires the Secretary to publish the scientific data used for listings online, with exceptions for state law and national security, requires sharing data with affected states before determinations, defines 'best scientific and commercial data available' to include state, tribal, and county data, requires annual reports and a searchable database on federal expenditures for lawsuits under the Act, and requires an analysis of economic, national security, and other effects when listing a species. Title V, Limitation on reasonable and prudent measures: It limits reasonable and prudent measures in consultations to actions that minimize the impact of incidental take, and prohibits measures that propose, recommend, or require mitigation or offset of that impact.