House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) today sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar regarding the recent, abrupt and unexplained Department of Interior (DOI) notice that the distribution of Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funds would be delayed until “late July.” Nearly 2000 counties in 49 states that are due to be paid their PILT funds in June of… Read more »

Today the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power held a hearing on H.R. 4719, a bill to establish a Southwest Border Region Water Task Force to assess the water supply needs of the region. As part of the hearing, the Subcommittee heard that drug cartel activity along the U.S./Mexican border presents major threats to water infrastructure, including the federally owned… Read more »

The House Natural Resource Committee today approved, with favorable recommendation, a Resolution of Inquiry (H. Res. 1406) introduced by Ranking Member Doc Hastings and National Parks, Forest and Public Lands Subcommittee Ranking Member Rob Bishop to direct the Department of Interior to turn over to Congress the missing pages and related documents of an “internal memo” detailing plans to… Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings released the following statement regarding President Obama’s address to the nation on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: “There is an on-going crisis in the Gulf and the priorities of the Administration should be simple: stop the leak and cleanup the oil.  Such a devastating crisis shouldn’t be used as leverage to push a… Read more »

Congressman Bill Cassidy (LA-06) delivered the following opening statement as the acting Ranking Member at today’s Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife hearing on “Ocean science and data limits in a time of crisis: Do NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service have the resources to respond?”: “Madam Chairwoman, I appreciate your scheduling this hearing on the resources and knowledge… Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings released the following statement regarding President Obama’s address to the nation on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: Read more »

Following a recent string of violence on federal lands along our Southern Border, Natural Resources Committee Republicans today received documents confirming that yet another brutal murder took place on federal lands. Pima County Sheriff’s Department documents verify that the murder of Mario Rivera-Rivera, whose body was discovered last November, occurred 25 yards from the US-Mexico… Read more »

BREAKING NEWS: Bureau of Land Management officials confirm that the two men found shot to death yesterday near the U.S.-Mexico border were discovered on federal land located in the Sonoran Desert National Monument, not far from where Pinal County Deputy Louie Puroll was shot last month by a band of suspected smugglers. House Republicans, lead by Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT),… Read more »

House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the May unemployment rate was 9.7%: “While any job growth is important during these difficult economic times, we need policies that will actually create permanent jobs and not just temporary, government positions.  The President’s… Read more »

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack traveled to Hillsboro, MO today to host a long overdue “National Summit of Rural America” on behalf of the Obama Administration. As Co-Chairs of the Rural America Solutions Group, Representatives Frank Lucas (R-OK), Sam Graves (R-MO) and Doc Hastings (R-WA), have each released a statement on the Obama Administration’s failure to address the… Read more »