Page 24 - Builder Brief December 2025

L E G I S L A T I V E N E W S
NAHB BACKS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S
PROPOSED ESA REFORMS
In a move strongly supported by NAHB, the U.S. Interior
Department on Nov. 21 announced four proposed regulatory
rules regarding reforms to the Endangered Species Act
(ESA) that would rescind changes made during the Biden
administration that have created regulatory barriers that hinder
housing development and economic activity.
The ESA regulatory reforms affect rulemaking regarding the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries
Service (collectively referred to below as the “Services”). If
adopted, most of these regulatory changes would restore
regulatory reforms put into place during the first Trump
administration.
Of note to NAHB members, each of the four ESA
rulemakings announced today by the Service were also
identified by NAHB as deregulatory priorities in letter that
NAHB sent to the Office of Management and Budget in May.
Key provisions of each of these four ESA
rulemakings include:
Proposed changes to the species listing and designation
of critical habitat processes.
» Requires the Services to base all species listing and
delisting determinations upon the best available
scientific and commercial data.
» Seeks to remove long-term considerations such as
possible impacts of climate change when the Services
makes a “foreseeable future” determination during a
species’ ESA listing determination.
» Requires the Services to provide the public economic
cost impacts when proposing to list a species or
designate an area as critical habitat.
» Reestablishes the Services’ past practice of prioritizing
when proposing to designate critical habitat areas
actually occupied by the species, as opposed
to designating unoccupied and occupied areas
simultaneously.
Proposed revisions to critical habitat exclusion regulations.
» Proposes to withdraw a regulatory change finalized
during the Biden administration that prohibited the
Fish and Wildlife Service from sharing with the public
the potential economic impact of critical habitat
designations.
Proposed rule rescinding the Fish and Wildlife Service’s
“blanket rule” allowing the Service to extend identical
protections to “threatened” and “endangered” species.
» Responds to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Loper
Bright ruling that requires regulations issued by federal
agencies to strictly follow federal laws as written, thus
overturning regulations based upon the concept of
Chevron deference.
» Requires the Service to follow the plain reading of
the ESA statute by requiring the Service when listing
a species as “threatened” to concurrently propose
a so-called “4(d) special rule” authorizing the “take”
of “threatened” species when landowners follow
prescribed conservation measures.
Proposed reforms to the ESA’s Interagency Cooperation
Section 7 regulations.
» Proposes to narrow the scope of required “effects of
the action” analysis of the proposed activity undergoing
an ESA Section 7 consultation.
» Seeks to rescind a controversial regulatory change
put in place during the Biden administration that allows
the Services to impose compensatory mitigation
requirements upon developers and builders for
unavoidable impacts to species or habitat during the
ESA Section 7 formal consultation process.
The Services will be accepting public comment on each
of the four ESA rulemakings until Dec. 19, 2025.
24 DECEMBER 2025 | GREATER SAN ANTONIO BUILDERS ASSOCIATION