The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reviewed deadline litigation brought under Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act. Per their newly issued report, plaintiffs filed 141 “deadline” suits against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for allegedly “failing to take actions within statutory deadlines under Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)” from 2005 to 2015.

Section 4, referred to as the “Cornerstone of Species Protection Law,” contains mandatory deadlines for making findings on petitions to list or delist species as threatened or endangered. Plaintiffs may file actions to compel the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to comply with statutory deadlines when making the determination whether to list species as endangered or threatened under the Act.

The GAO report notes that the lawsuits involved 1,441 species and cited a range of Section 4 actions, but many of the suits were related to “missed deadlines for issuing findings on petitions to list species.” Notably, the majority of deadline suits were resolved through settlement agreements that established schedules for the agencies to complete actions involved in the suits. Per agency officials, settlement remains an option for these lawsuits because it is often clear when a statutory deadline was missed. Critically, the settlement agreements did not affect the “substantive basis or procedural rule-making requirements” the agencies follow in completing the actions, such as providing opportunities for public comment on proposed rules.

The report also states that NMFS officials believe deadline suits did not impact their program because they have not had a large number of petitions to list species. By contrast, FWS delayed completing some actions to complete those included in settlement agreements. According to the report, FWS is developing a 7-year workplan to help complete overdue actions.

Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release, “Contrary to scare tactics from opponents of the Endangered Species Act, deadline suits seeking endangered species protection are way down because the Fish and Wildlife Service has in fact been making such decisions. The real fear now is that congressional opponents of endangered species will cut funding for listing or weaken the Act itself. This is clearly not what the majority of Americans, who support the Endangered Species Act, wants.”

A copy of the complete GAO report is available here.