2024 Conservation Report Card for the 118th Congress: Defenders of Wildlife Announces Release

Defenders of Wildlife (“Defenders”) announced on March 13th its release of a document titled:

2024 Conservation Report Card for the 118th Congress (“Report Card”).

Defenders says the Report Card assesses the commitment of United States Senators and Representatives to wildlife and habitat conservation.

The Report Card reviewed fifteen United States House of Representative votes and four Senate votes that Defenders states have “…serious implications for wildlife, habitats, and the environment.”

The 118th Congress began on January 3, 2023, and ended on January 3, 2025.

The United States Senate votes tabulated in the Report Card addressed:

• Clean Water Act wetlands and waterways.
• Lesser prairie chicken.
• Endangered Species Act (definition of “habitat”).
• Northern long-eared bat.

The United States House of Representatives votes tabulated in the Report Card addressed:

• Clean Water Act wetlands and waterways.
• Fossil fuel development/National Environmental Policy Act.
• Endangered Species Act/United States military.
• Lesser prairie chicken.
• Northern long-eared bat.
• Endangered Species Act draft rules.
• Endangered Species Act funding.
• Bureau of Land Management Conservation and Landscape Health Rule.
• Lead ammunition/tackle on federal lands.
• Endangered Species Act (grey wolf protections).
• Alaska oil leasing.
• Endangered Species Act/United States military activities.
• Border wall construction.
• Endangered Species Act (appropriations).
• Federal land/logging projects/National Environmental Policy Act/Endangered Species Act.

Defenders describes itself as dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. It further characterizes itself as the:

…premier U.S.-based national conservation organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of imperiled species and their habitats in North America.

A copy of the Report Card can be downloaded here.