U.S. — The Trump administration finalized a new rule on Friday repealing a part of the Endangered Species Act. The new rule allows development, logging, mining, and other uses in habitats of imperiled wildlife. Officials stated that actions that directly injure or kill listed wildlife will continue to be prohibited.

The Endangered Species Act has included a definition of "harm" that covers habitat for 50 years. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the inclusion of habitat in the definition of "harm" in 1995.

Kristen Boyles, an Earthjustice attorney, said, "For the first time ever, a presidential administration now claims that species protected by the Endangered Species Act shouldn't be safe from habitat modification that destroys where they live, raise their young, or search for food." She added, "Let's be clear: there is no support for the Trump Administration's rule – no scientific support, no legal support, no public support." Boyles said, "We will see the Trump Administration in court."

The Department of the Interior and Department of Commerce described the previous definition of harm as a regulatory intrusion interfering with private property rights. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated that previous protections turned routine activity into a regulatory trap.

Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the plan would be "a death sentence for wolverines, monarch butterflies, Florida manatees and so many other animals and plants that desperately need our help."

The legislation has helped safeguard more than 1,700 species and their habitats and has prevented 99% of listed species from going extinct. A 2019 assessment from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services stated that roughly 1 million species are threatened with extinction. The assessment stated that roughly 40% of amphibians are threatened with extinction and that a third of reef-forming corals, marine mammals, and sharks are threatened with extinction.

A 2023 poll found that 80% of registered voters favored full funding of the Endangered Species Act, and 73% viewed biodiversity as important to their everyday lives.