The Interior and Commerce Departments under the Trump administration finalized revisions to endangered species guidelines on July 10, permitting expanded business activity in vulnerable areas, according to CNN reports from earlier this month.

These adjustments focus on the meaning of harm to protected habitats within the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

CNN noted that the prior interpretation, active for more than five decades, banned habitat alteration or decline and received Supreme Court backing in a 1995 decision.

The administration described the update as restoring the law to its original wording and purpose while ending prolonged federal excess, labeling the old approach outdated.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called the previous rule a regulatory snare that raised expenses affecting daily life and stretched federal power past congressional aims.

He added that agencies had misused the act for years to block legitimate land activities and strain families along with enterprises.

Burgum presented the revisions as practical measures, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated they eliminate excessively wide and costly rules.

Critics contest the regulatory shifts

Groups focused on conservation, including Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles, voiced strong opposition and raised doubts about the legal foundation of the new measures.

Boyles told CNN there exists no backing for the administration rule in science, law, or public opinion.

Oceana Senior Campaign Director Gib Brogan highlighted the impact, noting habitat loss drives extinction and that dropping safeguards removes a key defense in the statute.

The departments maintained that essential safeguards for listed species remain intact and that direct injury or death to wildlife will still be prevented, per the CNN account.