Yesterday, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Republican Doc Hastings (WA-04) unveiled his new Congressional website. Click on the image below to read more about Doc and the Central Washington district he represents. Read More »

Tomorrow, the House is expected to vote on the Democrats’ so-called energy legislation (H.R. 3534) that will destroy jobs, increase energy costs, and make America more dependent on foreign oil. Read what House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said regarding the devastating impact this bill will have on American families and businesses: “The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is a terrible tragedy, and reforms are needed to make American deepwater energy production the safest in the world. But Washington Democrats are exploiting the Gulf tragedy to pass unrelated measures that will destroy Ame... Read More »

Below is a wrap-up of press releases distributed by Natural Resources Committee Republicans during the markup of the CLEAR Act (H.R. 3534), which passed out of Committee 21-27. Click here to see the roll call vote for final passage. Wrap-up of CLEAR Act Releases Hastings Opening Statement at Full Committee Markup on the CLEAR Act Natural Resources Committee Unanimously Approves Creation of Non-Partisan, National Oil Spill Commission Amendment Defeated to Remove Provisions Unrelated to Oil Spill from the CLEAR Act Democrats Block Republican Amendment to Ensure Press Has Free, Open Access to Cov... Read More »

Tomorrow, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, along with other Administration officials, will testify before our committee on the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill. The Natural Resources Committee has responsibility for this offshore leasing spill and the natural resource damages caused by the spill. Ranking Member Doc Hastings has repeatedly said that our immediate priority must be stopping the leak, cleaning up the oil and responding to the needs of the threatened and impacted communities. There are, however, many tough questions that need to be answered on what happened, what went w... Read More »

A National Journal Congressional Connection/Society for Human Resource Management Poll released today reveals telling results about what the public believes Congress’ priorities should be over the coming months. Jobs and energy topped the priority list for the one thousand people surveyed—81% want Congress to address the job situation and 67% believe Congress should attend to the nation’s energy needs. This survey is just latest evidence that the American people understand that jobs are directly linked to energy. While America’s oil and natural gas industry currently supports over 9 million jo... Read More »

Be sure to vote for one of the 5 new YouCut programs this week. After voting, you can also share other spending cut ideas you have. What program would YouCut this week? One of the 5 options is to suspend federal land purchases, saving $2.66 billion over 10 years. Cast your vote here. Over 280,000 votes were cast last week! YouCut – a first-of-its-kind project – is designed to defeat the permissive culture of runaway spending in Congress. It allows you to vote, both online and on your cell phone, on spending cuts that you want to see the House enact. Vote on this page today for your priorities ... Read More »

The leaders of the House Natural Resources Committee – which oversees offshore drilling and some related coastal issues – have dispatched committee staff to monitor the work of federal agencies responding to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. “We are sending Committee staff to observe the joint unified command as they problem-solve in real time to ensure protection of our economically critical coastlines and ocean resources,” Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Ranking Member Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) told Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a letter late last week. “Together, Committee staff and the joi... Read More »

Today the U.S. House of Representatives will vote for H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act. H.R. 2499 would provide for a two-step vote process in Puerto Rico on their future political status, including the option of becoming the nation’s 51st state. Ranking Republican Doc Hastings released a video that outlines concerns and questions about the proposed legislation: Click here to watch For additional information regarding H.R. 2499, please visit our issues page on The Puerto Rico Democracy Act. Read More »

Ranking Republican Doc Hastings (R-WA) Next week the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, which gives the people of Puerto Rico the opportunity to vote on their political future including the possibility of becoming America’s 51st state. Officially, the bill would create a two-step voting process where the people of Puerto Rico would vote to either maintain the status quo or select a different political status. If a different political status is desired by the majority of the electorate, Puerto Ricans would have three options: independence, free asso... Read More »

House Republicans introduced legislation Wednesday that would prohibit the Department of the Interior from using environmental regulations to interfere with the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to secure the nation’s southern border. As The Examiner reported in February, an ongoing feud between the two federal departments has left 4.3 million acres of federal wilderness land along the Mexican border virtually unprotected. So many drug smugglers, human traffickers, rapists and other criminals enter the U.S. at will that the park areas are now considered unsafe for all U.S. citizens. T... Read More »