Today, the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands held an oversight field hearing in Elko, Nevada entitled, “Explosion of Federal Regulations Threatening Jobs and Economic Survival in the West.” At the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop (UT-01) and Representative Mark Amodei (NV-02) heard testimony from the U.S. Forest Service, local officials and impacted… Read more »
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement on today’s unemployment report for the month of February from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
“The unemployment numbers released today are good news for those few who found work in February but for millions of Americans around the country, the unemployment rate is still far too high at 8.3… Read more »
Today, the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands held a legislative hearing on four wilderness bills. At the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop (UT-01) took the opportunity to question Bureau of Land Management Deputy Director Michael Pool about the recent discovery of credit card abuse and possible time-card fraud by Department of the Interior Bureau of… Read more »
Today, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held an oversight hearing on the Fiscal Year 2013 budget for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). During the hearing, Committee Members heard testimony from Gulf of Mexico business leaders and energy experts who expressed deep concern over the slowdown in offshore… Read more »
Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2842, the Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act of 2012, with a bipartisan vote of 265-154. Sponsored by Rep. Scott Tipton (CO-03), H.R. 2842 is an action plan to create new American jobs and eliminate bureaucratic hurdles to small hydropower production.
Specifically, the bill authorizes hydropower… Read more »
Today, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held an oversight hearing on the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) Fiscal Year 2013 Budget and received testimony from OSM Director Joe Pizarchik on the status of the Obama Administration’s actions to initiate rewrite coal mining regulations. Direct analysis by contractors hired to conduct the rewrite showed… Read more »
Today, the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs held an oversight hearing on the FY 2013 budget requests for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The hearing focused on the budget requests for major programs and activities… Read more »
Next week, the House of Representatives will consider H.R. 2842, The Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act of 2011, sponsored by Rep. Scott Tipton (CO-03). This legislation will create American jobs and expand production of clean, renewable American energy by eliminating duplicative red tape on small canal and pipeline hydropower development… Read more »
Today, the House Natural Resources Committee passed H.R. 3409, the Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act with a bipartisan vote of 26-18. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bill Johnson (OH-06), prevents the Obama Administration’s unnecessary and rushed rewrite of a coal mining regulation that took over five years of environmental analysis and careful… Read more »
Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1837, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act, with a bipartisan vote of 246-175. This comprehensive bill would restore water deliveries that have been cut-off due to federal regulations and environmental lawsuits, protect tens of thousands of jobs, ensure a reliable water supply for people and fish, secure water rights, and… Read more »