The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; P.L. 93-205, 16 U.S.C. §§1531-1544) aims to conserve species listed as endangered or threatened under the act. Once a species is listed under the ESA, the act provides tools to aid in the species’ conservation and recovery and to protect its habitat. The act is primarily administered by two agencies: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), within the Department of the Interior, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), within the Department of Commerce. FWS has primary jurisdiction over most terrestrial and freshwater species, while NMFS has primary jurisdiction for most marine and anadromous species. As such, these two agencies receive the majority of funding appropriated by Congress to administer the ESA. Many Members of Congress are interested in how the agencies allocate funding for and implement the ESA because U.S. states and territories manage species that are or may be listed under the act. Congress is also interested in how efficiently the agencies administer certain sections of the act and how much funding to appropriate for conservation and recovery of listed species. FWS and NMFS work together, and with other federal agencies, to implement the ESA. FWS’s and NMFS’s ESA-related activities include, but are not limited to listing species under the ESA and designating critical habitat; developing and implementing recovery plans for listed species; developing protective regulations; consulting on federal actions that may affect a listed species or its designated critical habitat; providing grants for species conservation and recovery; and engaging in international, bilateral, and/or multilateral conservation efforts. Congress provides FWS with discretionary appropriations through annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations laws. Funding for FWS’s ESA-related activities is provided in the Resource Management account (under the Ecological Services activity) and the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund (CESCF) account. Discretionary appropriations (in real dollars) for FWS’s Ecological Services activity have generally decreased from approximately $317.5 million in FY2017 to approximately $277.5 million in FY2026. They have decreased for the CESCF account from approximately $70.5 million in FY2017 to approximately $22.2 million in FY2026. In recent years, Congress has also provided mandatory appropriations from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to the CESCF (e.g., approximately $40.2 million in FY2026). Congress provides NMFS with discretionary appropriations in annual Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations laws, under two accounts: Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF) and the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF). Within ORF, appropriations for ESA-related activities may be included within the Protected Resources Science and Management and Enforcement line items. These two line items also may fund non-ESA-related activities; therefore, NMFS’s ESA-related activities are not readily calculable from annual appropriations legislation. According to values from NOAA, estimated funding (in real dollars) for NMFS’s ESA-related activities increased from approximately $196.7 million in FY2017 to approximately $220.5 million in FY2025. Appropriations (in real dollars) for the PCSRF have decreased from approximately $87.5 million in FY2017 to $65.0 million in FY2026. At times, Congress has addressed ESA-related funding for FWS and NMFS through legislation outside of the annual appropriations process. For example, both agencies received supplemental appropriations to fund ESA-related activities in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58) and the legislation commonly referred to as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-169). Congress may consider multiple issues related to funding ESA implementation, including the sufficiency of staff at FWS and NOAA to implement the ESA; whether funding levels to conserve and recover listed species under the ESA are adequate; and oversight over the economic costs of the ESA and the distribution of those costs between federal agencies and nonfederal stakeholders.
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