The severe fire season in western U.S. forests has intensified calls for funding changes so that the U.S. Forest Service does not have to borrow money from other accounts to finish out a fiscal year of wildfire suppression.
The situation has revived the question of whether a solution can be accomplished through fiscal changes alone or whether a stepped-up level of active forest… Read more »
Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources held a joint hearing with the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Animas River spill, which resulted in 3 million gallons of toxic water spilling into the Animas and San Juan Rivers from Colorado and into New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona.
Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) questioned EPA… Read more »
Federal regulators refused to share water-quality data for weeks following a blowout of toxic wastewater from a Colorado mine that fouled rivers across the Southwest, a New Mexico official said Thursday.
The move by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed to downplay the severity of the spill, hobbling the state's response, said Ryan Flynn, New Mexico secretary of Environment and… Read more »
Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources held an oversight hearing in New Orleans, LA, on the current state of offshore oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico. The panel received testimony from U.S. Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), industry representatives, and the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement… Read more »
House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) today issued the following statement in response to the Obama Administration’s request for Congress to change the way the nation pays for wildfire suppression.
“Changing the way we pay for wildfire suppression is only one small part of a much more serious land management crisis that we must address – now. Our national… Read more »
Top administration officials wrote Congress on Tuesday to urge it–once again–to change the way it budgets for firefighting in light of the disastrous wildfire season in the western U.S.
The Agriculture Department just informed lawmakers this week that it will have to transfer $250 million to fighting the forest fires now raging, which brings this fiscal year’s emergency spending total to… Read more »
Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources held a markup on a number of bills, including H.R. 538, the “Native American Energy Act” sponsored by Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaskan Native Affairs. The legislation passed Committee by a vote of 23 to 12. Following passage, Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) commented:
“The… Read more »
House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and Vice Chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior (DOI) Sally Jewell, requesting data and documents about the events leading up to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)… Read more »
Yesterday, the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas issued an order which vacates the Lesser Prairie Chicken listing under the Endangered Species Act, on the basis that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) did not apply the proper criteria for evaluating conservation efforts at the state level. House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) issued the… Read more »
“It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”
— Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
Sordid, always. And sometimes lethal, as some Native American children could attest, were they not, like Declan Stewart and Laurynn Whiteshield, dead. They were victims of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which as construed and applied demonstrates how identity politics can leave… Read more »
