16. Department of the Interior · Minor
Publish all data used in Endangered Species Act decisions
Printed page 534 16. Department of the Interior
“Direct the Fish and Wildlife Service to make all data used in ESA decisions available to the public, with limited or no exceptions, to fulfill the public’s right to know and to prevent the agency’s previous opaque decision-making.”
What has happened
- Attempted
SO 3441 implements EO 14303, "Restoring Gold Standard Science", and §5(c) orders the Office of the Chief Information Officer to "post or make publicly available all scientific data, analysis, methodology, modeling, including modeling data and assumptions, and other information relied upon for decision-making by all Bureaus and Offices by January 16, 2026". §5(d) requires any decision resting on conclusions not supported by publicly available raw data to explain why, and §5(e) requires new research contracts and grants to permit public release. That covers Endangered Species Act decisions along with everything else, and it is a directive: no allowlisted source records the Fish and Wildlife Service publishing the data behind its ESA determinations, and the January 2026 deadline passed without an announcement.
- Secretary's Order 3441, signed text — §4 reinstates SO 3369 Amendment 1; §5(c) orders all scientific data relied on for decision-making posted publicly by January 16, 2026
- Secretary's Order 3441, “Implementing the Requirements of Executive Order 14303, Restoring Gold Standard Science” (August 29, 2025)
- Interior press release: Interior Department Restores Gold Standard Science Across Federal Decision-Making
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
The directive exists and is Department-wide; whether it has been carried out for ESA decisions is not on the record.
- Action
- other
- Object
- Data used in Endangered Species Act decisions
- ID
- 1509