Bill blocks oil and gas exemption from endangered species rules
H.R. 8919 — To nullify the decision and order of the Endangered Species Committee with respect to certain oil and gas activities, and for other purposes. · Filed by Donald Beyer (D-VA) · 23 cosponsors · Introduced May 20, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
A committee decided on March 31, 2026 to exempt some Gulf oil and gas work. This bill cancels that decision. It stops money for that exemption. It brings back full endangered species rules for those activities. The committee cannot make a similar exemption for three years.
Who it affects
Oil and gas companies lose an exemption they had. People who care about endangered species gain the right to challenge harmful oil and gas work. The public gets stronger protections for Gulf wildlife.
One thing to notice
The bill refers to a document from March 31, 2026 but does not print its full text. People cannot fully know what the bill covers without reading that outside document.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
23 cosponsors: 23 Democrats.
- May 20, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 20, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 5 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $906,600 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 79 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 72% of bills with any report.
Donald Beyer, who sponsored the bill, received $660,599 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Earthjustice Action — $376,600 in 2 reports
- Defenders of Wildlife — $270,000 in 1 report
- Ocean Conservancy — $260,000 in 1 report
- Save the Manatee Club — $0 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- exemption — Permission to skip a rule that normally applies to everyone.
- endangered species — Animals and plants at risk of dying out completely.
- committee — A federal group that can exempt certain activities from rules.
- 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 (2,652 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 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 Jun 2026 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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-01.
“Bill blocks oil and gas exemption from endangered species rules” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr8919/simple Report an error
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