Bill treats bred creatures same as wild creatures under endangered species law
H.R. 181 — To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to provide that artificially propagated animals shall be treated the same under that Act as naturally propagated animals, and for other purposes. · Filed by Tom McClintock (R-CA) · Introduced Jan 3, 2025 · Reported out
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill changes the Endangered Species Act. It says bred creatures must be treated the same as wild creatures. It also lets people use breeding to fix damage to a species. Breeding places could claim their work saves species.
Who it affects
Wildlife breeders, zoos, and breeding places gain more freedom. Developers may pay less to fix harm to nature. Wild creature groups could face weaker rules if breeding costs less than protecting homes.
One thing to notice
The bill removes rules that now treat bred creatures differently from wild creatures. This could let breeding places claim they save species while also making money.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jan 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 3, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
- Sep 15, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Sep 15, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute by the Yeas and Nays: 21 - 17”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $120,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 13 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Tom McClintock, who sponsored the bill, received $160,376 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Defenders of Wildlife — $100,000 in 1 report
- Zoological Association of America — $20,000 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Endangered Species Act — the main U.S. law that protects creatures at risk of dying out
- breeding — raising creatures in captivity by people, not born in the wild
- homes — the place where a wild creature lives and finds food
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,303 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,358 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-19.
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