House Republicans have voted to reel back federal protections for a California longfin smelt, which President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized in his long-standing feud with Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

The House of Representatives voted 216-195 to remove the endangered species status for the San Francisco Bay-Delta distinct population of longfin smelt. Three Democrats voted in favor and one Republican voted against.

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The measure now needs to pass in the Senate before heading to Trump’s desk.

This tiny fish, which is 3.5 to 4.3 inches in length, is found along the Pacific coast from Northern California all the way to Alaska.  It has a lifespan of up to three years and has seen its population dramatically decline due to habitat loss caused by changes and declines of freshwater flow into the San Francisco Bay. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the San Francisco Bay longfin smelt as an endangered species in July of last year. These federal and additional state protections were intended to support the recovery of the small fish by ensuring the species has enough freshwater. 

These rules have, to an extent, increased the amount of water that is pumped out to sea and restricted how much is sent to other areas of the state. Critics, including Trump, have argued the rules put an undue burden on farmers and residents, particularly in times of drought. 

Environmentalists groups have sought the endangerment status for the smelt for years, and even sued the first Trump administration in 2019 after the Republican declined to give the species the federal protections. Republicans accused the Biden administration of bending to legal pressure from these groups. 

“It ignores the fact that this species currently inhabits the entirety of the Bay, occupying all its tributaries and successfully spawning in all types of water conditions,” Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) said late last month. “The facts demonstrably show the species is not at risk of extinction.” 

Other critics have classified the endangerment status listing as an example of “out-of-touch” environmental policies from Democrats that have had unintended negative consequences for families. 

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), who sponsored the resolution to remove the protections, claimed in March that the listing specifically makes it harder for California to store and deliver water across the state. 

“We are already dealing with a maze of arcane and oftentimes conflicting environmental regulations that make it nearly impossible to manage our water supply effectively for Californians up and down the state,” LaMalfa said at the time. 

“This is in addition to permanent, mandatory water rationing imposed on households by California regulators. This listing adds another layer of bureaucracy, sending up to 200,000 acre-feet of water to the ocean each year, likely from Shasta Lake or Lake Oroville, instead of storing it for future use or making it available to Californians,” he added. 

This is an argument the president himself has fully embraced to fuel his attacks on Newsom amid his handling of the deadly wildfires in southern California earlier this year. 

“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump posted on Truth Social in January. “Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”

Newsom’s office swiftly denied the president’s claims, calling the allegations “pure fiction.”

When putting out the Los Angeles Fires, emergency responders did face a number of water access issues. Part of the problem, though, was an electrical outage preventing water from flowing to the hydrants. The hydrants were also not built to draw on so much water for such a long period of time.

Trump has repeatedly targeted California over its efforts to conserve the delta smelt and has threatened to withhold federal disaster funding if Newsom fails to rescind its policies.

The clash over who should be receiving increased flows of water from a major water source in the state, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, came to a head on Trump’s first day in office, when he signed an executive memo titled “Putting People over Fish.” 

The order gave Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum 90 days to submit a report on the administration’s efforts to route water from this delta to other parts of the state. 

The revoking of the endangerment status was passed using the Congressional Review Act. This legislative producer allows Congress to overturn a federal regulation with a simple majority vote. 

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Once the rule is voted on in both chambers and signed by the president, the relevant agency is unable to propose a similar rule. 

Since the start of the 119th Congress, House Republicans have sought to undo many Biden administration energy and climate regulations through this process.