Florida's homebuilders spent years trying to get wetlands permits out of the hands of federal regulators and into the hands of the state, where they expected faster approvals. In 2020 they got it. Then two federal courts threw the program out.
So now they are asking Congress to change the law instead, and a bloc of Florida Republicans is doing the asking.
The bill is H.R. 9017, the "Restore Florida Water Independence Act of 2026." It is sponsored by Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor. Its Republican cosponsors include six more members of Congress tracked on this site: Brian Mast, Mike Haridopolos, Greg Steube, Gus Bilirakis, Laurel Lee and Jimmy Patronis, according to the congress.gov cosponsor list.
What the courts said
Wetlands are protected by the Clean Water Act. Normally, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decides whether a developer can fill one in. In late 2020, at the end of Trump's first term, the Environmental Protection Agency let Florida take that job over, making it only the third state to do so.
To speed things up, Florida got a blanket sign-off from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying the state's permits would never threaten the survival of any of Florida's more than 100 imperiled species. Normally, a project that might harm an endangered animal, like a Florida panther or a manatee, gets its own review.
In 2024, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled that the EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service had violated the Endangered Species Act when they approved Florida's program. On March 27, 2026, a federal appeals court in Washington upheld that ruling, keeping wetlands permits with federal regulators.
Rachel Silverstein of Miami Waterkeeper said the court made clear that "Florida's 404 program was deficient." "It lacked adequate safeguards, enforcement, and alignment with federal standards," she said. Earthjustice attorney Christina I. Reichert said the ruling confirmed the "government can't take shortcuts around our bedrock federal environmental laws."
What the bill does
H.R. 9017 is three pages long. Its gist, as Florida Phoenix columnist Craig Pittman summarized it: "Those judges are wrong. We hereby declare Florida to be in compliance with the Endangered Species Act."
In other words, it doesn't fix the problem the courts found. It declares the problem solved, so the state can go back to approving permits the same way.
"This is essentially a free pass for development," Amber Crooks of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida told the House subcommittee that held a hearing on the bill in September. She warned it would create a program "with no guardrails or backstops" for Florida panthers, manatees, Key deer and other endangered wildlife.
Donalds testified that the court rulings were about "procedural paperwork, not an environmental failure" and that putting Florida back in charge would cut "unnecessary red tape imposed by Washington."
Then he said this: "If we don't take care of our environment, our state is finished."
They've been trying for a while
This is at least the fifth attempt to get around the courts, according to Bonnie Malloy, a senior attorney with Earthjustice in Florida.
One of them came from Aaron Bean. In March 2025, he filed H.R. 2030, the "Maintaining Cooperative Permitting Act of 2025," and claimed Florida's program "remains essential for protecting our iconic wildlife and valued wetlands." That bill went nowhere.
Why wetlands matter to Florida
Wetlands replenish Florida's drinking water, filter out pollution, protect against flooding and give endangered animals a place to live, as Pittman lays out.
And the fast-track program didn't even deliver the speed developers wanted. Pittman cites Bloomberg Law reporting from 2023 that Florida approved permits at roughly the same rate the Corps had, after developers flooded the state with triple the applications.
The Fish and Wildlife Service official who testified at the hearing was candid about the goal: "We're working in alignment with the administration's priorities, to … reduce environmental review." That's the same agency whose chief told agents that killing an endangered animal is legal unless you meant to.
The facts, in short
Two federal courts found the approval of Florida's state-run wetlands permitting program violated the Endangered Species Act. Byron Donalds sponsored H.R. 9017 to declare Florida in compliance anyway, and Brian Mast, Mike Haridopolos, Greg Steube, Gus Bilirakis, Laurel Lee and Jimmy Patronis cosponsored it. Aaron Bean filed a similar bill in 2025. Conservation groups told Congress it would be "a free pass for development" with no protections for panthers, manatees or Key deer.
Source
Florida Phoenix: "Congress tries end-run around Florida court decision protecting wetlands"
