Endangered Species Act Incidental Take Permit Revocation Regulations

This rule describes circumstances in which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may revoke incidental take permits issued under section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. On December 11, 2003, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Spirit of the Sage Council v. Norton, Civil Action No. 98- 1873 (D. D.C.), invalidated 50 CFR 17.22(b)(8) and 17.32(b)(8), the regulations addressing Service authority to revoke incidental take permits under certain circumstances. The court ruled that we had adopted those regulations without adequately complying with the public notice and comment procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and remanded the regulations to us for further proceedings consistent with the APA. On May 25, 2004, we published in the Federal Register a final rule withdrawing the permit revocation regulations vacated by the court's order (69 FR 29669). On that same date we requested public comment on our proposal to reestablish the permit revocation regulations (69 FR 29681).