Cormorant Relief Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Cormorant Relief Act of 2025 requires the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to reissue the original depredation order for double-crested cormorants at aquaculture facilities that existed in 50 CFR 21.47 as of January 1, 2016. The reissued order must apply to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and any other state or territory the Secretary determines appropriate. It also extends the order to licensed private lake managers and licensed private pond managers. The bill removes the June 30, 2014 expiration date, requires renewal at least once every five years, modernizes terminology, simplifies federal-law compliance provisions, updates recordkeeping, and states that Interior must still comply with NEPA and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Who Benefits and How
Aquaculture facilities, fish farms, catfish farmers, licensed private lake managers, licensed private pond managers, state wildlife regulators, fish-stock owners, and aquaculture businesses in the added states benefit because the bill restores and broadens lawful authority to take double-crested cormorants that damage fish stocks at aquaculture and managed-water facilities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior wildlife-rule staff, NEPA compliance staff, Migratory Bird Treaty Act compliance staff, double-crested cormorant populations, bird-conservation organizations, and state licensing agencies must reissue and renew the order, maintain updated records, process modernized compliance rules, preserve environmental review duties, and absorb increased authorized cormorant taking.
Key Provisions
- Requires reissuance of the original double-crested cormorant depredation order.
- Expands the order to specified additional states and any other state or territory Interior determines appropriate.
- Adds licensed private lake managers and licensed private pond managers as eligible users of the order.
- Removes the June 30, 2014 expiration date and requires renewal at least every five years.
- Modernizes terminology, recordkeeping, and compliance provisions while preserving NEPA and Migratory Bird Treaty Act obligations.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires Interior, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to reissue and renew the double-crested cormorant depredation order for aquaculture facilities, expand it to named states and licensed private lake and pond managers, modernize terminology and recordkeeping, and preserve NEPA and Migratory Bird Treaty Act compliance.
Key Policy Areas
Agriculture, Wildlife, Aquaculture
Primary Purpose
Requires Interior, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to reissue and renew the double-crested cormorant depredation order for aquaculture facilities, expand it to named states and licensed private lake and pond managers, modernize terminology and recordkeeping, and preserve NEPA and Migratory Bird Treaty Act compliance.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Aquaculture facilities
- Fish farms
- Catfish farmers
- Licensed private lake managers
- Licensed private pond managers
- State wildlife regulators
- Fish-stock owners
- Aquaculture businesses in added states
Identified Costs
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Interior wildlife-rule staff
- NEPA compliance staff
- Migratory Bird Treaty Act compliance staff
- Double-crested cormorant populations
- Bird-conservation organizations
- State licensing agencies
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed HouseReceived; read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment …
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to …
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Mr. Hurd (CO) moved to suspend the rules and pass …
Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without …
On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, …
Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules …
DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate …
Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H5076-5077)
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Aquaculture facilities, Catfish farmers, Fish farms
Licensed private lake managers, Licensed private pond managers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of the Interior acting through the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology