December 13, 2024 — U.S. President Joe Biden has signed the Coastal Habitat Conservation Act, which codifies the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Coastal Program and provides funding to protect, enhance, and restore priority habitats along the nation’s coasts.
“Coastal ecosystems are an integral part of our nation’s economy and well-being, but climate change, pollution, and unsustainable development are rapidly deteriorating these critical resources,” U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) said of the bill when he introduced it more than a year and a half ago. “This collaborative bill is a bipartisan solution to preserve the health and resilience of coastal habitats, benefiting the wildlife, communities, and economies that depend on them.”