To amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require that certain species be treated as extinct for purposes of that Act if there is not a substantial increase in the population of a species during the 15-year period beginning on the date the species is determined to be an endangered species, and for other purposes.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Discredit Eternal Listing Inequality 
of Species Takings Act'' or the ``DELIST Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly (Rhaphiomidas 
        terminates abdominalis) was listed as an endangered species 
        under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
        seq.) on September 23, 1993 (58 Fed. Reg. 49881).
            (2) Nineteen years have passed since the Delhi Sands 
        Flower-loving Fly was listed as an endangered species.
            (3) The Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly's listing was based 
        on a high degree of threat and a low potential for recovery for 
        a listed subspecies that may be in conflict with construction 
        or other development projects or other forms of economic 
        activity.
            (4) On September 14, 1997, a recovery plan was issued for 
        the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly. The plan claimed that the 
        resolution of current population data is too poor to 
        effectively evaluate abundance trends or population 
        distributions due to the cryptic nature and rarity of the Delhi 
        Sands flower-loving Fly. Thus, the recovery plan by definition 
        could not establish delisting criteria.
            (5) The United States Fish and Wildlife Service's report 
        entitled ``Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly (Rhaphiomidas 
        terminatus abdominalis) 5-Year Review: Summary and Evaluation'' 
        (March 2008; referred to in this section as the ``5-year review 
        report'') establishes that down-listing criterion 2 cannot be 
        evaluated with current knowledge of the Delhi Sands Flower-
        loving Fly.
            (6) None of the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly conservation 
        areas are currently managed to maintain perpetual sand supply. 
        There is currently insufficient information to determine the 
        extent or long-term importance of this impact to maintaining 
        the dune ecosystem.
            (7) The cryptic nature and low density of Delhi Sands 
        Flower-loving Fly complicate efforts to effectively monitor 
        population abundance.
            (8) To date, it has proven difficult to conduct surveys 
        that reliably quantify relevant population variables (e.g., 
        density and relative abundance), and no populations are 
        regularly surveyed with sufficient effort to effectively 
        monitor population trends.
            (9) Public support for conservation of the sand dune system 
        upon which the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly depends is 
        limited.
            (10) The life history of the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly 
        is largely unknown.
            (11) The 5-year review report asserts that the Delhi Sands 
        Flower-loving Fly was not used to explain larval stages of such 
        fly because the population was too low. Instead, a comparison 
        of entomologists observed several larvae of Rhaphiomidas 
        trochilus, and because R. trochilus is closely related to the 
        Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly, these observations were used to 
        understand larval biology of the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly.
            (12) A commenter mentioned in the 5-year review report 
        suggested that the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly may be non-
        native to the Riverside/San Bernardino area and may have been 
        accidentally introduced by the early settlers.
            (13) There is no new information in the scientific 
        literature suggesting that the range of the Delhi Sands Flower-
        loving Fly is more extensive than initially identified.
            (14) Although the area of potentially suitable habitat has 
        expanded, no newly discovered occupied site supports a major 
        population of the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly that was not 
        known at the time of the listing.
            (15) Within the section of the 5-year review report 
        relating to abundance, it stated that no clear trends emerge 
        from the demographic data that have been generated since the 
        listing of the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly. Due to the 
        cryptic nature and rarity of the Delhi Sands flower loving fly, 
        it is difficult to accurately estimate abundance or density for 
        this subspecies.
            (16) The 5-year review report claims range-wide surveys 
        have not been attempted due to lack of funding and issues with 
        access to privately owned properties.
            (17) The 5-year review report indicated that United States 
        Fish and Wildlife Service biologists initiated a study in 2004 
        designed to improve Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly survey 
        protocol recommendations. This study required the effort of 3 
        biologists working 6 days a week during the peak of the flight 
        season, and the data were only marginally adequate to estimate 
        abundance, density, and detection probability. This effort 
        indicated that measurement of population demographic trends 
        will likely require substantial effort unless new techniques 
        prove effective.
            (18) Because most Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly habitat is 
        in private ownership and no regulations are in place to address 
        loss of unoccupied Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly habitat, the 
        permanent loss of potential and restorable Delhi Sands Flower-
        loving Fly habitat important to recovery often proceeds.
            (19) Most of the existing Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly 
        conservation sites are likely too small and fragmented to 
        sustain Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly populations through time.
            (20) In addition, while protected from development, most of 
        the existing conservation areas remain susceptible to invasion 
        by nonnative grasses, off-road vehicle use, and other 
        disturbances.
            (21) Most conservation areas do not have monitoring 
        programs to track Delhi Sands flower-loving fly occupancy or 
        habitat quality.
            (22) With at least 90 percent loss of historical Delhi 
        Soils, potential and suitable Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly 
        habitat available for conservation and restoration is extremely 
        limited.
            (23) At the time of listing in 1993, there were only five 
        small, isolated, extant populations of Delhi Sands Flower-
        loving Fly.
            (24) The 5-year review report states that recent 
        observations, and the continued habitat loss and fragmentation, 
        all suggest that population sizes of the Delhi Sands Flower-
        loving Fly are likely to be very small. Here, it is clear that 
        the United States Fish and Wildlife Service does not know the 
        size of the population. It may be possible that there is no 
        longer a population to protect.
            (25) It is commonly accepted in conservation biology that 
        small populations have higher probabilities of extinction than 
        larger populations because their low numbers make them 
        susceptible to inbreeding, loss of genetic variation, high 
        variability in age and sex ratios, demographic stochasticity, 
        and random naturally occurring events such as wildfires, 
        floods, droughts, or disease epidemics.
            (26) Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly populations were 
        considered to be at risk at the time the subspecies was listed 
        because of their small size and habitat fragmentation. We have 
        no information suggesting that these threats have been 
        ameliorated since the time of listing.
            (27) Monitoring efforts since the time of listing, though 
        limited, do not suggest population increases, and it is 
        reasonable to believe that Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly 
        populations are likely to be very small.
            (28) Together, small population size, isolation, 
        populations in fragmented habitat, and increased vulnerability 
        to introduced predators and competitors increase the risk of 
        extirpation of the remaining Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly 
        populations.
            (29) Continued listing of the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly 
        as an endangered species is not based on the best scientific 
        and commercial data available. The 5-year review report relied 
        on research conducted in 1993 or 2002. The research is 19 and 9 
        years old, respectively. The 5-year review report has not shown 
        that the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly exist nor has there been 
        a substantial increase of population during the 19 years of 
        protection by the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 
        1531 et seq.).

SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN SPECIES AS EXTINCT.

    Section 4(a) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 
et sq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(4) Treatment of Certain Species as Extinct.--(A) A limited 
listed species shall be treated as extinct for purposes of this Act 
upon the expiration of the 15-year period beginning on the date it is 
determined by the Secretary to be an endangered species, unless the 
Secretary publishes a finding that--
            ``(i) there has been a substantial increase in the 
        population of the species during that period; or
            ``(ii) the continued listing of the species does not impose 
        any economic hardship on communities located in the range of 
        the species.
    ``(B) In this paragraph the term `limited listed species' means any 
species that is listed under subsection (c) as an endangered species 
for which it is not reasonably possible to determine whether the 
species has been extirpated from the range of the species that existed 
on the date the species was listed because not all individuals of the 
species were identified at the time of such listing.''.

Summary: Discredit Eternal Listing Inequality of Species Takings Act or the DELIST Act - Amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) to treat a limited listed species as extinct for purposes of this Act upon the expiration of the 15-year period beginning on the date it is determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be an endangered species, unless the Secretary publishes a finding that: (1) there has been a substantial increase in the population of the species during that period. Or (2) the continued listing of the species does not impose any economic hardship on communities located in the range of the species. Defines limited listed species as any species that is listed as an endangered species for which it is not reasonably possible to determine whether the species has been extirpated from the range of the species that existed on the date the species was listed because not all individuals of the species were identified at the time of such listing.