I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 659 
To reverse the Department of the Interior’s listing of the lesser prairie 
chicken as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 
1973, to prevent further consideration of listing of such species as 
a threatened species or endangered species under that Act pending imple-
mentation of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ 
Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-Wide Conservation Plan and other con-
servation measures, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 2, 2015 
Mr. MULLIN (for himself, Mr. LUCAS, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mr. THORNBERRY, 
Mr. COLE, Mr. TIPTON, Ms. JENKINS of Kansas, Mr. FLORES, Mr. 
PEARCE, Mr. HUELSKAMP, and Mr. BRIDENSTINE) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To reverse the Department of the Interior’s listing of the 
lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species under the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973, to prevent further con-
sideration of listing of such species as a threatened spe-
cies or endangered species under that Act pending imple-
mentation of the Western Association of Fish and Wild-
life Agencies’ Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-Wide Con-
servation Plan and other conservation measures, and for 
other purposes. 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Lesser Prairie Chicken 
Voluntary Recovery Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. IMPLEMENTATION OF LESSER PRAIRIE-CHICKEN 
RANGE-WIDE 
CONSERVATION 
PLAN 
AND 
OTHER CONSERVATION MEASURES. 
(a) PROHIBITION ON TREATMENT AS THREATENED 
OR ENDANGERED SPECIES.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any prior 
action by the Secretary of the Interior, the lesser 
prairie chicken shall not be treated as a threatened 
species or endangered species under the Endangered 
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) before 
January 31, 2020. 
(2) PROHIBITION ON PROPOSAL.—On and after 
January 31, 2020, the lesser prairie chicken may 
not be treated as a threatened species or endangered 
species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 
(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) unless the Secretary pub-
lishes a determination, based on the totality of the 
scientific evidence, that conservation (as that term is 
used in that Act) under the Range-Wide Plan and 
the agreements, programs, and efforts referred to in 
subsection (b) has not achieved the conservation 
goals established by the Range-Wide Plan. 
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(b) MONITORING OF PROGRESS OF CONSERVATION 
PROGRAMS.—The Secretary shall monitor and annually 
report to the Congress on progress in conservation of the 
Lesser Prairie Chicken under the Range-Wide Plan and 
all related Candidate Conservation Agreements and Can-
didate and Conservation Agreements With Assurances, 
other Federal conservation programs administered by the 
United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of 
Land Management, and the Department of Agriculture, 
State conservation programs, and private conservation ef-
forts. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) 
CANDIDATE
CONSERVATION
AGREE-
MENTS.—Each of the terms ‘‘Candidate Conserva-
tion Agreement’’ and ‘‘Candidate and Conservation 
Agreement With Assurances’’ means, respectively, 
such an agreement referred to in— 
(A) the Announcement of Final Policy for 
Candidate Conservation Agreements with As-
surances published by the Department of the 
Interior and the Department of Commerce on 
June 17, 1999 (64 Fed. Reg. 32726); and 
(B) sections 17.22(d) and 17.32(d) of title 
50, Code of Federal Regulations. 
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(2) RANGE-WIDE
PLAN.—The term ‘‘Range- 
Wide Plan’’ means the Lesser Prairie-Chicken 
Range-Wide Conservation Plan of the Western Asso-
ciation of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, as endorsed by 
the United States Fish and Wildlife Service on Octo-
ber 23, 2013, and published for comment on Janu-
ary 29, 2014 (79 Fed. Reg. 4652). 
Æ 
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