Manage our Wolves Act - H.R.6784

The House passed (196-180) H.R.6784, to provide for removal of the gray wolf in the contiguous 48 States from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife published under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy, Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing & Insurance, today released the following statement following the House Natural Resources Committee advancing his legislation to delist the gray wolf. The Manage Our Wolves Act was passed out of the committee by a vote of 19-15. 

“Wisconsin farmers are now one step closer to having the legal means to defend their livestock from gray wolves. I’d like to extend a big thank you to the members of the Natural Resources Committee who also agree that states should be the ones to responsibly manage their own gray wolf populations – not Washington bureaucrats.”

U.S. Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) put forward legislation that would return management of the Western Great Lakes and Wyoming gray wolves to state control. Management of these gray wolves were transferred from the state to the federal level following two 2014 U.S. District Court decisions that reinstated gray wolves under the protections of the Endangered Species Act. These designations leave farmers and ranchers in those states without a legal avenue to protect their livestock from problem wolves.

Congressman Duffy released the following statement on the legislation:

“Judicial activism has caused a multitude of problems in our nation, and a Washington judge claiming to know what’s best for Wisconsin’s ecosystem is another egregious example. In Wisconsin, we cherish our wildlife and work diligently to conserve our natural resources, but the Endangered Species Act has allowed courts to misuse judicial oversight to stop science-based wildlife management from moving forward to delist the gray wolf. Wisconsin farmers deserve to be able to protect their livestock from gray wolves, and we will protect Wisconsin farmers from activist judges.”

Democratic Whipe Steny Hoyer:

This bill requires the Secretary of the Interior to remove Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for gray wolves in the lower forty-eight states. 

Gray wolves were first listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1974.  While the population of the gray wolf has increased over the last several decades, the species currently only occupies 5% of its historic range in the lower 48 states.  Wolves still face threats from hunters and agricultural interests and are only beginning to recolonize areas where they were long a critical part of the ecosystem.

H.R. 6784 would substitute the will of Congress over the carefully studied, science-based approach to delisting species under the ESA. The legislative delisting would not have to go through a rulemaking process, subject to public comment, nor would it be subject to judicial review.