Wildlife Conservation Sees Bipartisan Support in 116th Congress

The 116th Congress has pursued several bipartisan initiatives to protect U.S. biodiversity, focusing on wildlife corridors, land preservation, endangered species, and invasive species management. Key legislative proposals include the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act and the Great American Outdoors Act, alongside efforts to restore previous protections under the Endangered Species Act and expand invasive species management through the WILD Act.

• The 116th Congress introduced the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act of 2019 and the Tribal Wildlife Corridors Act of 2019 to improve habitat connectivity. The former aims to increase federal capacity to protect migration routes through tools like a Wildlife Movement Grant Program and a Wildlife Connectivity Database, while the latter empowers tribes to enhance connectivity on tribal lands and requires the U.S. Forest Service to consider linking these corridors to USFS-managed lands.
• Legislative efforts for land preservation include the Protecting America’s Wilderness Act, which seeks to protect over 1,000 miles of rivers and 1.3 million acres of land in Washington, California, and Colorado. Additionally, the Great American Outdoors Act combines the Restore Our Parks Act with the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act, the latter of which would authorize $900 million in annual expenditures from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to address a $30 billion backlog of federal conservation needs.
• The Protect America’s Wildlife and Fish in Need of Conservation Act of 2019 was introduced to reverse 2019 Department of the Interior rules that limited critical habitat designations, removed protections for threatened species, and allowed economic assessments to influence whether a species should be protected.
• To combat biodiversity loss and economic damage caused by invasive species, the bipartisan Wildlife Innovation and Longevity Driver (WILD) Act proposes expanding wildlife conservation programs, establishing invasive species management requirements, and creating the Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize program to foster innovation in species management.

APA

Neal, A. (2020). Wildlife Conservation Sees Bipartisan Support in 116th Congress. Environmental and Energy Study Institute. https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/wildlife-conservation-sees-bipartisan-support-in-116th-congress

Chicago

Neal, Abby. Wildlife Conservation Sees Bipartisan Support in 116th Congress. Environmental and Energy Study Institute, 2020. https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/wildlife-conservation-sees-bipartisan-support-in-116th-congress.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Neal |first1=Abby |title=Wildlife Conservation Sees Bipartisan Support in 116th Congress |publisher=Environmental and Energy Study Institute |date=8 May 2020 |url=https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/wildlife-conservation-sees-bipartisan-support-in-116th-congress |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{neal2020wildlife, author = {Neal, Abby}, title = {{Wildlife Conservation Sees Bipartisan Support in 116th Congress}}, institution = {Environmental and Energy Study Institute}, year = {2020}, month = may, url = {https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/wildlife-conservation-sees-bipartisan-support-in-116th-congress}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }