“Lord only knows what they’re going to cook up here over the next few weeks.”

organization.

Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin both support the more limited Senate bill, but said they have not yet had a chance to consider the more sweeping bill that passed the House.

“The state of Wisconsin has done an incredible job through all sorts of conservation practices ... to bring the wolf population back,” Baldwin said. “So we’re very interested in addressing (ending federal protections).”

There’s a third way Congress could act on wolves: The House version of the bill that funds the Department of the Interior includes a provision that would end federal protections for gray wolves in the Lower 48 states, just like the bill the House passed last month. That language is not in the Senate spending bill.

Sens. Richard Shelby, R-ala., and Patrick Leahy, D-VT., lead the Senate’s negotiations on spending bills, and “have made it their position to keep poison pill riders out of the appropriations bills,” according to Jay Tilton, a Leahy spokesman. A poison pill is a provision that could doom the entire spending package.

In Washington, the federal Endangered Species Act protects gray wolves in the western two thirds of the state. Throughout the state, the wolves are protected under state law.

Despite legal challenges, the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved the killing of wolves in certain areas that attack livestock, reigniting controversy between ranchers and conservationists.

Wolves in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and part of Utah have already been removed from the endangered list because the populations there have recovered, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife. The House bill would target wolves in every other contiguous U.S. state.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife is currently assessing the status of gray wolves and could recommend the removal of wolves from the endangered species list nationwide, which it sought the last time it reviewed the species’ status in 2013.

Shire said he’s not sure when the assessment will be finished, but stressed that the agency’s decision will not be impacted by congressional legislation.

Lane was wary of estimating the chances of ending federal protections for wolves by the end of the year, whether through existing legislation or a new bill not yet in existence.

“Lord only knows what they’re going to cook up here over the next few weeks,” he said.