Members of the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert proposing to delist gray wolves from the the nation’s endangered species list.

The bill, called The Trust the Science Act, was included in the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for the 2024 fiscal year, which House members passed Nov. 3 — less then two months before Colorado reaches a year-end deadline to reintroduce a gray wolf population in the state.

The proposed federal legislation would reinstate a 2020 U.S. Fish and Wildlife rule that delisted gray wolves as endangered species, a move later challenged in a lawsuit and overturned by a decision handed down by the U.S. District Court for Northern California in February 2022.

Following the court’s decision, President Joe Biden’s administration joined hunting groups in supporting an unsuccessful appeal of the court’s decision.

In a statement, Rep. Boebert said, “the science is crystal clear on this issue: gray wolves should no longer be on the endangered species list. The constant back-and-forth on this matter goes against the best available science. We can no longer put farmers and ranchers in harm’s way by using taxpayer dollars to protect a species that has been fully recorded and that is destroying their livestock.”

The federal government first classified gray wolves as an endangered species in 1978. The protection helped increase the animals’ population to around 7,000 by 2020, leading the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to deem the animals’ recovery successful.

The bill backed by Boebert advances as Colorado, where U.S. Fish and Wildlife believes there to be handful of gray wolves, gets closer to its deadline for plans to reintroduce the species in a portion of the state after voters narrowly passed a 2020 statewide ballot measure known as Proposition 114.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission intends to reintroduce a gray wolf population with 10 wolves captured and relocated from Oregon by Dec. 31.

When that happens, they will be managed as a nonessential experimental population under a rule finalized by U.S. Fish and Wildlife in September. The population designation would provide for allowable, legal, purposeful, and incidental taking of the gray wolf,” in Colorado while providing for the conservation of the species, according to the rule.

U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper applauded the finalization of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife rule, which goes into effect Dec. 8.

“This final rule respects the will of Colorado voters, farmers, ranchers, and conservationists, and sets our state up for responsible gray wolf reintroduction,” Hickenlooper said in statement. 

Editor’s note: This article was updated to show U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is the leading sponsor of the Trust the Science Act.