Interior Department to study manatee habitats as industrial sites shut down
H.R. 9590 — SAFE for Manatees Act · Filed by Daniel Webster (R-FL) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 2, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to study alternative habitats for manatees currently living near Florida coastal industrial sites that are being decommissioned and will lose their warm-water refuges. The study must identify natural warm-water locations and assess whether artificial warm-water refugia can be built, with a report due within 180 days. The primary beneficiary is the manatee population facing habitat loss from industrial decommissioning.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward directive for a wildlife habitat assessment study. It is a routine conservation measure with no hidden mechanisms, narrow beneficiaries, or deregulatory intent. The operative mechanism is transparent: study → report → potential future action.
What the text implies
- The study may implicitly acknowledge that industrial decommissioning is proceeding without mandatory manatee habitat replacement, shifting the burden of mitigation to the federal government rather than the decommissioning entity.
- Artificial warm-water refugia construction could become a long-term federal obligation if natural alternatives prove insufficient, creating ongoing appropriations pressure.
- The 180-day timeline is tight for a comprehensive habitat assessment; the report may be preliminary, potentially requiring follow-up studies or legislation.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill addresses a genuine conservation problem: manatees face habitat loss as industrial sites shut down. A study to identify alternative warm-water refuges protects a threatened species and preserves Florida's marine ecosystem, which benefits citizens through biodiversity, tourism, and ecological stability. No direct costs to citizens are imposed.
Named in the bill
Secretary of the Interior, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Secretary of the Army, Chief of Engineers, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Trichechus manatus (West Indian manatee)
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 4 Republicans, 2 Democrats.
- Jul 2, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 2, 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
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $0 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Daniel Webster, the sponsor, reported $199,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Save the Manatee Club — $0 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,665 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
“Interior Department to study manatee habitats as industrial sites shut down” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr9590 Report an error
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